The ratification office of the Justice Ministry has refused to endorse the Minya Court ruling of last May which sentenced 12 Copts to life imprisonment and acquitted eight Muslims on the same charges, in the Minya town of Abu-Qurqas
The ratification office of the Justice Ministry has refused to endorse the Minya Court ruling of last May which sentenced 12 Copts to life imprisonment and acquitted eight Muslims on the same charges, in the Minya town of Abu-Qurqas.
According to Ramy Lutfy, a lawyer of the defendants, the ratification office submitted a memorandum to the President of the Republic that the Minya Court ruling was tainted by error and exaggeration, and the provisions of the law had not been applied. The memorandum demanded that the president should issue a full pardon, order a retrial, or simply disregard the memo.
Since the court ruling of last May was issued by a State security court and was thus not open to appeals, the lawyers of all 12 defendants had sent petitions to the then Military Ruler of Minya to review the ruling.
On Monday 21 May the court of Minya in Upper Egypt had sentenced 12 Copts to life imprisonment for their part in a fight which took place in the town of Abu-Qurqas in April 2011, and which left three Muslims dead, and several Copts’ houses and cattle sheds looted and burnt.
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, Eid Abdullah Mikhail, Magdy Abdullah Mikhail, and Saeed Waheed Deif were all sentenced. The court acquitted the eight Muslim men who had been charged in the same case: 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 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 all been charged with mobbing, premeditated murder, threatening public peace, sectarian sedition, arson, and using unlicensed arms to threaten security and public order.
Watani International
16 July 2012