WATANI International
10 October 2011
Today saw the execution, by hanging, of Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Hussein, 41, commonly known as Hammam al-Kamouni, at the Burg al-Arab prison west of Alexandria. Kamouni had been handed the death sentence by a criminal court for shooting to death six Copts and one Muslim in January 2010.
It was 6 January, Coptic Christmas Eve, and the Copts had just left church after Midnight Mass. A Muslim friend, Ayman Sadeq, met two of them—all three were longtime friends—to wish them Happy Christmas, when Kamouni and two accomplices opened fire on the congregation leaving church. Bola Atef, Abanoub Kamal, Ayman Zakariya, Bishoi Farid, Rafiq Rifaat, Mina Hilmy, and Sadeq were killed.
Kammouni’s accomplices, Qurashi Abul-Haggag and Hindawi al-Sayyed were acquitted and released.
The execution of Kamouny today is widely seen as a move to appease Copts in the wake of the Merinab church burning and the consequent killing of some 20 Coptic protestors in Maspero yesterday.