WATANI International
29 May 2011
The military court has issued sentences against three Copts who were detained, along with five other Copts and four Muslims, during an attack by a Muslim mob against the church of the Holy Virgin and Anba Abra’am in the eastern Cairo district of Ain Shams on 19 May. The church had been closed by the security authorities back in 2008 and was being reopened on 19 May by order of the Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawi when the Muslims attacked in an effort to block the re-opening.
The three Copts were sentenced to five years in prison for the illegal possession of weapons. The other detainees were released.
Emad Ayad Barsoum and Ayman Youssef Halim had been caught with shotguns, while Ayad Emad Ayad was carrying a knife.
Their lawyer Ashraf Edward asked the military council to reconsider the ruling which he described as “harsh”. The sentence stipulated by Egyptian civil law for carrying a knife, he said, is suspended imprisonment for six months. Copts should not be made to feel that courts apply double standards where they are concerned, Edward told Watani.
The Egyptian Centre for Human Rights issued a statement in which it demanded a re-trial for the defendants before a civil court. The statement reminded that the defendants were among a Coptic crowd that was defending its church against attackers, and that this should have been taken into consideration by the court. In two other recent attacks against Copts, the statement pointed out, the defendants were tried before civil courts.