Egyptian teacher who killed child receives prison term

Friday, December 26, 2008

An Egyptian teacher who kicked a schoolboy to death after he failed to complete his homework has been given a six year prison sentence for manslaughter.

	Hitting [children] is not banned in schools and my client did not break the law.
—Lawyer for Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid

Islam Amr Badr, the schoolboy, died in a hospital in Alexandria with four broken ribs, according to testimony heard by the court.

	The minister of education should be the first person to be accused - how can he agree to let such a young man teach children
—Amr Badr Ibrahim, father of Islam Amr Badr

In response to these allegations, Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid, the convicted teacher, stated that he was not intending to hurt the child, he was merely intending to discipline him.

The lawyer for Abdelhamid also defended his client's actions. He stated that "Hitting [children] is not banned in schools and my client did not break the law."

The Egyptian government has announced new measures and released statements regarding corporal punishment's eradication in response to this case.

Amr Badr Ibrahim, the father of the schoolboy killed, has called for more people than just the teacher to be blamed for the death. "The problem is the teaching and the teachers because they cannot find good teachers," he claimed. "The minister of education should be the first person to be accused - how can he agree to let such a young man teach children?"

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Sources

"Boy-killing Egypt teacher jailed" — BBC News Online, December 25, 2008
"Egyptian teacher given prison term" — Al Jazeera English, December 25, 2008
"Egyptian teacher gets six years prison for beating student to death" — Monsters and Critics, December 25, 2008

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