MP calls for harsher penalty to end child kidnapping in Egypt

CAIRO – 30 August 2021: Member of Parliament Tayseer Matar called for a harsher penalty for child kidnapping, describing the crime as hostile to humanity.  

MP Matar’s remarks came in response to a viral video showing the kidnapping of a child in Mahalla el-Kubra city, triggering many angry and painful comments by Egyptian users on children’s safety.

“The crime of kidnapping children in Egypt to be used to threaten parents in return for money, or be used in beggary networks must come to an end,” MP Matar said, stressing that the parliament is able to issue necessary legislation to end this phenomenon completely.

He added, “We all have a role to protect our children, and I personally will submit a request to the Parliament’s Legislation Committee to discuss increasing the penalty of child abduction, so that we can provide a safe society to our children.”

The kidnapping incident of the child Ziad on Sunday morning in Mahalla al-Kubra in Gharbia governorate was captured on surveillance camera. Two masked men were seen taking the child out of an oil shop on the ring road and pushed him inside a car, while the child’s mother was seen running out of the shop, trying to catch them and was dragged on the road helplessly as she could not stop them.

Investigations into the incident kicked off, and security authorities intensified efforts to search and identify the perpetrators in order to quickly arrest them, and return the child to his family.