The 6th of October City prosecutor’s office renewed the arrest warrant for two suspects wanted for interrogations over the murder of 13-year-old Youssef Sameh el-Araby who died on Monday after being in a coma for 11 days.
Youssef was shot in the head by a silent gunshot in Giza’s 6th of October City while ordering some food from a local restaurant in the area. He collapsed, seemingly from unknown causes, and the bullet wound was discovered.
The suspects are Taher M., a police captain in Fayoum Security Directorate, the grandson of Sofi Abo Taleb (former speaker of the People’s Assembly), and a student Khaled A. who is the son of a member of the House of Representatives.
The prosecution ordered the Interior Ministry’s Department of Criminal Evidence Investigation to examine a video which allegedly shows the suspects shooting a rifle and an automatic gun.
The prosecution said the first suspect confessed, along with the other suspects.
Investigations show that the first suspect was celebrating his engagement. The two escaping suspects fired gunshots when celebrating in a villa behind Al-Husary Mosque. Police found 18 bullet casings for a 7.62×39-caliber automatic gun on the roof of the villa.
The first suspect said the escaping suspects did not know how to use the automatic weapon, claiming that the automatic shots were fired randomly. The wedding ceremony continued from 3 pm until 12 pm on Thursday 18 May — the day Youssef and the Veterinary Medicine student Duaa Qaoud were injured.
The prosecutor heard the testimony of doctor Ehab Safwat, the manager of the hospital where Youssef died.
He confirmed that the victim was shot in the brain stem and that his case had not improved since he was admitted to the hospital, where he spent the past 11 days on industrial respirators. Youssef’s case did not allow surgical intervention, he added.
Youssef’s funeral was held on Monday at Salah Eddin Mosque in Manial and the burial was in his family’s cemetery in 6th of October.
The prosecution ordered for the bullet be extracted from the child’s head to see if it matches the 18 bullet casings found at the scene.
Following Youssef’s death, the prosecution amended the charges against the three suspects to manslaughter and possessing a firearm without a license.
Judicial sources said the penalty for manslaughter may be between 1 to 10 years’ imprisonment, while the penalty for possession of automatic gun without a license is life imprisonment.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
