Egypt: Christian Children Arrested for 'Insulting Religion'

Arutz Sheva ^ | 4/10/12 | Elad Benari

[Eleutheria5]

Two Coptic Christian children, aged 10 and 9, have been arrested for insulting religion in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Beni Suef, Ahram Online reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the two children were arrested on Tuesday after the imam of their local mosque filed a complaint against them.

By order of the prosecution the two boys, Nabil Nagy Rizk and Mina Nady Farag, are now being held in the Beni Suef juvenile detention pending further investigation on Sunday, said the report.

Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, the village imam, has accused the children of tearing up pages of the Koran. An Ahram Online reporter in the area said Ali initially took the children to the church and requested that the priest punish them.

Unsatisfied with the church's decision not to castigate the two boys, Ali, together with three other villagers, turned to the courts.

Nabil's father Nagy Rizk defended the action of the boys in a public statement, explaining that they are illiterate and therefore did not know the content of the papers which they found in a small white bag, as they were playing near a pile of rubbish in the street.

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