In a session which lasted no more than 15 minutes, a Minya emergency State security court sentenced 11 Copts to 25 years in prison each, and eight Muslims to 15 years in prison each. All 19 defendants were sentenced in absentia
In a session which lasted no more than 15 minutes, a Minya emergency State security court sentenced 11 Copts to 25 years in prison each, and eight Muslims to 15 years in prison each. All 19 defendants were sentenced in absentia.
For security reasons, the trial was held in Beni Sweif not in Minya.
The 11 Copts, in addition to Eid Abdullah who died last some six weeks ago in a car accident, had been sentenced last May to 25 years imprisonment for their part in a fight that took place in their hometown of Abu-Qurqas in Minya, Upper Egypt, in April 2011. The court acquitted eight Muslims who had been involved in the fight and charged with the same charges The fight had which left three Muslims dead and one wounded, as well as several Copts’ houses burnt. However, a retrial was ordered by a higher court.
The names of the Coptic defendants are Alaa’ Rushdy, Yacoub Fadl, Abdullah Mikhail Abdullah, Adel Abdullah Mikhail, Fanous Nady Ibrahim, Magdy Nady Ibrahim, Gamal Fouad Hanna, Eid Ibrahim Fanous, Safwat Kamel Habib Ghattas, Magdy Abdullah Mikhail, and Saeed Waheed Deif. The Muslim defendants are Ahmed Mustafa Rabie, Taher Atef Taher, Khaled Ibrahim Mohamed, Ahmed Badr Ahmed, Ramadan Abdel-Azim Mohamed, Reda Sayed Ahemd, Ismail Mamdouh Mahmoud, and Ikrami Abdullah Mohamed.
The April 2011 fight in Abu-Qurqas village in Minya had erupted over a speed bump which the Coptic lawyer, Alaa’ Rushdy, had constructed in front of his house in order to slow down traffic. The defendants, the 12 Copts and eight Muslims, had been charged with mobbing, premeditated murder, threatening public peace, sectarian sedition, arson, and using unlicensed arms to threaten security and public order.
Watani International
28 July 2013