In another episode of targeting Copts living in Libya, the first hours of Tuesday 30 December saw seven Copts kidnapped while on their way back home from Libya to Minya, Egypt. Father Estefanous Shehata, of the church of Anba Karas and Pope Kyrillos in Samalout, Minya, told Watani that the seven young Coptic men who worked in Libya had hired a Microbus
to drive them across the Libyan border into Egypt. Near al-Mawarda district in Libya, a group of armed men stopped the microbus and held the seven Copts. Father Shehata said that the Samalout bishopric and the families of the lost men appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Egyptian Ambassador to Libya to investigate the matter and help return the young men safely. The identity of the kidnappers is still unknown, Father Shehata explained; also whether or not the microbus driver was an accomplice with the kidnappers.
The names of the seven kidnapped men: Samuel Wilson, Ezzat Bushra Nassif, Luqa Nagati, Essam Baddar Samir, Malak Farag Ibrahim, Sameh Salah Farouq, and Gaber Mounir Adly
Watani International
31 December 2014