Toddler sentenced to life in prison in case of mistaken identity

'If it is true that it was a mistaken identity, why did they come to arrest the boy?'

When three-year-old Ahmed Mansour Qorany Sharara was arrested in 2014, he was found guilty of killing three people and sabotaging public and private property.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Sharara made it around the world as the Egyptian government sent officials to arrest the toddler, who could never have "sabotaged" property, let alone murder three men.

Sharara was only 16-months-old when the alleged crime took place, but he received a guilty verdict regardless.

Initially, when authorities appeared on the Sharara doorstep to arrest the boy, they saw that he was only a baby so they took his father and detained him for four months before he was released.
When news of the case became widespread, the public outcry was so great that officials claimed neither the Sharara father or son would be arrested again.

General Bakr Abdel Karim, an aid to interior minister promised neither would be jailed and that the entire event was a case of mistaken identity.

Despite the claim, Hemat Mostafa, Sharara's mother, called a television station to say police had come to question her son and husband. She asked, "If it is true that it was a mistaken identity, why did they come to arrest the boy? Why haven't security arrested the right defendant then?"

Little Sharara, who shares a name with his father, was sentenced with 115 other defendants, all of whom were found guilty.

Attorneys for other defendants went as far as to show the court the boy's birth certificate, though their reasons were to save their own clients, not the boy.

Abu Kaf, a lawyer on the case, told CNN, "We wanted to tell the judge that these are invalid investigations and our proof is the inclusion of the child, and a man who was out of the country when the incident in question took place, among the defendants."

Criminal justice researcher Karim Ennarah explained that the ridiculous case proved the corruption of the justice system:

"The main problem with that is that there are probably other cases that are not as striking where such mistakes are not corrected because you are not talking about a two-year-old child, and the outcry is not as big -- especially if you look at the number of people who are being processed by the criminal justice system at the moment. 

"I would go as far as saying it is disintegrating, the justice system. It's on the verge of complete dysfunctionality. It's a troubling trend and it will probably lead to just wide mistrust in the judiciary system, which has long-term effects that will be very difficult to reverse."

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