Egypt pardons four-year-old 'mass murderer'

Egypt pardons four-year-old 'mass murderer'
A toddler sentenced to life in prison for murder has been let off the hook after authorities admitted his conviction was a mistake, in the latest Egyptian legal farce.
2 min read
24 Feb, 2016
The child was sentenced along with 115 other "Muslim Brotherhood members" [YouTube]
A young man convicted of murder has been released after Egypt's military courts made the rare admission of a mistake in the judicial process.

Ahmad Mansour Qurany was sentenced last week to 28 years in prison for murdering three people, the attempted murder of six others, illegal arms possession and vandalism.

The trouble? Qurany is only four years old now, and the alleged offences took place when he was barely two.

The army said another minor with a similar name, 16-year-old high-school student Ahmad Mansour Qurany Sharara, was the real suspect in question - and that he had already been tried in absentia.

Confusingly, an army spokesman has also said the child's 51-year-old uncle, Ahmad Qorany Ahmad Ali, was the suspect actually implicated in the crime.

On Saturday, the child's father, Mansour, appeared on live television and broke down in tears with his "terrorist" baby son sleeping in his lap.

"I haven't done anything wrong, I swear. No one is going to take my son from me," he said.

We are living in fear. How can I feel safe in a country that convicts babies in military trials? 

- Ahmad Mansour Qurany's mother


Mansour Qurany said that police had first come to arrest his son in January last year, when he told them that Ahmad was a toddler, they arrested him instead.

Qurany said he spent four months in prison before finally being released without charge.

"I am terrified that they will come and take him at any time," said the child's distraight mother. "We are living in fear. How can I feel safe in a country that convicts babies in military trials?"

Egypt has come under heavy criticism for its mass trials of protesters, political activists and journalists following the 2013 military coup, with around 40,000 opposition supporters currently serving time in the country's prisons.

Human rights activist Gamal Eid tweeted: "To the people who are happy with investigations that imprison dozens including a four-year-old child: How many other cases have been based on similar investigations?"

Popular talk show host Amr Adeeb said: "I don't care about the technicalities of the case and how they have messed up. The world now sees us as a country of lunatics."

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