Egyptian four-year-old’s life sentence ‘a mistake - 16-year-old should have been sentenced instead,’ says army colonel

The boy was convicted of committing four murders, attempting another eight, vandalising property and threatening police officers - all when he was just one year old

Members of the Egyptian police special forces patrol streets in al-Haram neighbourhood in the southern Cairo Giza district on 25 January, 2016, in order to head off potential protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government (Getty)

The Egyptian military has acknowledged a military court made a mistake when it sentenced a four-year-old boy to life in prison for murder.

Military spokesman Colonel Mohammed Samir said the court should have sentenced a 16-year-old boy with a similar name instead, the BBC reports.

Ahmed Mansour Qurani Ali was convicted of committing four murders, attempting another eight, vandalising government property and threatening police officers - all when he was just one year old.

The boy was one of 115 defendants who were all handed life sentences at the same time at the court in western Cairo for crimes allegedly committed in early 2014.

In a Facebook post in Arabic, Colonel Samir said a boy with a similar name, Ahmed Mansour Qurani Sharara, 16, should have been sentenced instead.

It is unclear what will happen to the four-year-old now.

His defence attorney, Faisal al-Sayd, previously argued his name had been added to the list by mistake, as the court did not pass his birth certificate on to the judge to prove he had been born in September 2012.

Another lawyer told the Jerusalem Post the case showed "there is no justice in Egypt".

He added: “The Egyptian scales of justice are not reversible. There is no justice in Egypt. No reason. Logic committed suicide a while ago. Egypt went crazy. Egypt is ruled by a bunch of lunatics."

Egypt has been ruled by military dictatorship under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi since Mohammed Morsi's democratically elected government was ousted in 2013, following mass protests.

Around 40,000 opposition supporters are believed to have been jacked in a government crackdown on dissent.