13-year-old boy Youssef Sameh El-Araby shot in the head by silent gunshot (Photo: Facebook)
Two fugitives who were convicted in absentia for accidentally killing 13-year-old Youssef El-Arabi's turned themselves in early on Wednesday at 6 October City police station.
Two days ago, a criminal court confirmed a seven-year sentence against the two defendants – Ahmed Abdel-Tawab and Taher Abu Taleb – for accidentally killing the teenager with a stray shot from celebratory gunfire.
The court sentenced four defendants in total to five years in prison for possessing illegal firearms and sentenced three of them, including Abdel-Tawab and Taher Abu Taleb, to another two years for manslaughter.
Earlier in 2017, El-Arabi was standing with his friends in front of a popular restaurant in 6 October City’s Hosari Square when he lost consciousness and fell to the ground. It was discovered later in the hospital that he had sustained a bullet wound to the head that put him in a coma for almost two weeks, before he died on 29 May 2017.
According to the interior ministry, an investigation into El-Arabi’s death revealed that some people were firing guns from a nearby rooftop during a wedding celebration.
Last year, a Cairo criminal court sentenced the four defendants to five years in prison for possessing illegal firearms and sentenced three of them to another two years for manslaughter. The verdict was also in absentia for two of the defendants.
El-Arabi’s mother Marwa Qenawi told Ahram Online, “I have been seeking legitimate paths to justice for more than a year-and-a-half and decided to go on a hunger strike to shed light on the case and demand the arrest of the two escaped defendants.”
Qenawi started her hunger strike on 31 March and ended it on 13 May 2019.
“Another aim of my strike was shedding light on and eliminating the social phenomenon of randomly shooting firearms at weddings celebrations,” Qenawi said.
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