On February 25, 2026, a juvenile court in Ismailia, Egypt sentenced a 13-year-old boy to 15 years in a youth detention facility. The case had gripped Egypt since October 2025. Egyptian domestic media dubbed him the “Child of the Chainsaw.” To understand the sentence, you have to go back four months.
THE BODY NEAR THE MALL
On October 12, 2025, security forces in Ismailia received a report. Dismembered remains of a child had been found near a well-known shopping mall in the city. The pieces had been scattered across multiple locations. Police cordoned off the area and referred the case to prosecutors.
Investigators traced the crime back quickly. The victim was Mohammed A.M., a minor. His schoolmate, Youssef A., also 13, was arrested within days. What he told prosecutors was something else entirely.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT APARTMENT
According to confessions obtained by prosecutors and corroborated by a crime scene re-enactment, Youssef A. lured Mohammed to his family home on October 12, 2025, in the New Station district of Ismailia’s First Precinct. His parents were away. He struck Mohammed repeatedly on the head with a wooden stick until he was dead.
He then took his father’s electric saw and dismembered the body. He transported the remains to multiple locations near the shopping mall to hide the evidence, according to Al Arabiya’s initial report of October 16, 2025.
Investigators walked Youssef A. back through every step. He led them to his home — the scene of the murder — and then to each location where he had hidden what remained of his classmate.
“I COOKED PART OF THE BODY AND ATE IT”
The interrogation unsettled everyone in the room. Mohammed Hussein Al-Jablawy, the victim’s family lawyer, told Al Arabiya on October 20, 2025 that Youssef A. spoke during questioning “with unusual emotional stability for a child his age — as if he enjoyed recounting the details of what he had done, calmly and with complete composure.”
In his confessions, Youssef A. admitted to cutting off part of Mohammed’s calf muscle, cooking it, and eating a piece of it. He said he was inspired by a scene from a foreign horror film. He also said he had gotten the idea from an online video game. He changed his account multiple times over the course of the interrogation.
Al-Jablawy called publicly for legal reform. “The current law does not impose adequate penalties on children who commit crimes of this level of brutality,” he said in his statements to Al Arabiya on October 20, 2025. He demanded an urgent legislative review to ensure deterrence and justice for victims’ families.
THE TRIAL
Forensic authorities conducted an autopsy on Mohammed A.M. to establish cause, time, and manner of death. DNA testing was carried out. The tools used in the dismemberment were examined.
Defence lawyers requested a psychiatric evaluation, citing the extreme brutality of the crime. The Regional Council for Mental Health concluded that Youssef A. was of sound mind and fully criminally responsible at the time of the offence. The defence also challenged the court panel at an earlier hearing.
On February 25, 2026, the verdict was delivered: 15 years in a youth detention facility, as reported by Gulf News. The “Child of the Chainsaw” case is closed — at least in a court of law.
FOR CONTEXT
Ismailia is a city of roughly 750,000 people situated along the Suez Canal, roughly midway between Cairo and Port Said. Under Egyptian law, sentences handed down in juvenile court are capped and served in separate facilities from the adult prison system. The case sparked a nationwide debate in Egypt about children’s exposure to violent content in video games and horror films — and whether the law’s protections for juvenile offenders are calibrated for cases where the offender shows no signs of remorse.
