The Criminal Court of Qena in Upper Egypt yesterday acquitted the two Muslims who were accused of cutting a Copt’s ear in March 2011 in the Upper Egyptian town of Qena. Al-Husseini Kamal Mahmoud and Alaa’ Abdel-Sattar Alaa’, both in their thirties
The Criminal Court of Qena in Upper Egypt yesterday acquitted the two Muslims who were accused of cutting a Copt’s ear in March 2011 in the Upper Egyptian town of Qena. Al-Husseini Kamal Mahmoud and Alaa’ Abdel-Sattar Alaa’, both in their thirties, were declared innocent basing on a traditional ‘conciliation’ session held a few days following the incident, during which the Copt, Ayman Nour Mitry, 45, was cornered into relinquishing his legal rights under threat by the Salafis that members of Mitry’s family would be at risk if he refused to ‘reconcile’.
The legal case had been brought against Mahmoud and Alaa’ by the prosecution in the wake of a decision by the Military Council two months ago to investigate all crimes against Copts and prosecute the culprits. This decision had been taken in response to demands last March by Coptic protesters and youth movements.
Predictably, the recent ruling caused disappointment and concern among the Coptic community.
The events date back to March 2011 when hardline Islamists in Qena decided to apply Islamic hodoud (specific physical penalties for certain crime, such as cutting a thief’s hand, stoning an adulteress to death and flogging an adulterer) against Mitry whom they accused of having an illicit relation with a Muslim woman who rented a flat he owned.
Using a knife, the Salafis cut his right ear, injured his left, caused a 10-cm long cut in his neck, and injured his right arm. They went downstairs and put his car on fire. They beat up the twenty-something woman, Sabrine Seif al-Nasr, then called the police and said they had applied the hadd (plural, hodoud) against Mitry, and the police were now free to “apply your own law”.
Mitry was rushed to the hospital, but no Salafi was caught.
A couple of days later a ‘conciliation’ session was orchestrated by the local and political leaderships in Qena between the victim and the Salafis. Mitry and his family were pressured into accepting reconciliation at risk of other family members being attacked. Participating in the session were the Military Ruler in Qena, the previous MP Gamal al-Naggar, member of the Revolutionary Coalition Mohamed Mustafa, Mitry and his family, several members of the clergy of the Coptic Orthodox and Catholic churches in Qena, a number of sheikhs, and the man who cut Mitry’s ears al-Husseini Mahmoud. Mahmoud who said he had been ‘misinformed’ about the relation between the Nasr and Mitry, and had acted accordingly.
WATANI International
24 April 2012