CAIRO: An Egyptian NGO has condemned the detention of a teenage girl at a police facility for the detention of adults. The Egyptian Association for the Advancement of the Condition of Children said in a statement issued Saturday that Hanan Shabaan Ezzat Qotb is being held on remand in Omraneya police station, Giza, amid adults. Association director Hany Helal says in the statement that while Egypt has begun implementing the law with regard to holding minors separately from adult detainees, it only happens in the case of males. “Girls however have no detention center separate from adult females in any police station in Egypt,” the statement reads, a violation of the 2008 Child Law which prohibits the detention of minors and adults together. Individuals who flout this law are liable to prison sentences of between three months and two years and a fine of between LE 1,000 and LE 5,000. The association has presented a complaint to the Prosecutor General calling on him to take action in the case. It also demands that the government draw up an implementing statute for the Child Law allowing district committees for child protection to inspect places of detention in order to ensure that children are not being held under illegal conditions.
