WATANI International
2 November 2011
In response to appeals by the prosecution and the victims’ lawyers, the court has decided to re-try Qurashi Abu-Haggag and Hindawy Mohamed for their role in the killing of six Copts and a Muslim in the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi two years ago. The principle culprit, the 41-year-old Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Hussein, commonly known as Hammam al-Kamouni, was last month hanged after he had been handed the death sentence for his crime. His accomplices, Abu-Haggag and Hindawi, were acquitted and set free.
On Coptic Christmas Eve on 6 January 2010, as the Copts left church after Midnight Mass, Kamouni and his two accomplices opened fire from a moving car on the congregation. Bola Atef, Abanoub Kamal, Ayman Zakariya, Bishoi Farid, Rafiq Rifaat, Mina Hilmy, and Ayman Sadeq—a Muslim who had come to wish two of his Coptic friends a Happy Christmas—were killed.
The victims’ families received the decision to retry both culprits with relief. The Military Council had recently declared, in the wake of a meeting with Church leaders, that everyone who took part in attacks against the Copts would be brought to justice.