EGYPT: 4 MEN ARRESTED AS TEENS ESCAPE DEATH PENALTY

March 13, 2020:

Four Egyptians who were arrested as teenagers escaped the death penalty on 9 March 2020 after a court in Cairo acquitted them of all their charges, rights group Reprieve confirmed.
Ammar el-Sudany, Belal Hasnein, Mohamed Badr and Abdullah Moniem were all arrested as teenagers for protesting against the Egyptian government in 2016.
The case against the teenagers, which lasted for nearly two years, was settled during a mass trial of 304 people on 9 March at the north Cairo military court.
The Egyptian authorities charged the four teenagers with being members of a terrorist group called Hasm, which recruits young people to carry out violent attacks against Egypt's security forces.
The families of the four young men said they had all been held with adult detainees and suffered severe overcrowding, prevented from bathing for months and given little access to food, medicine, and clothing.