The union of Coptic organisations in Europe has denounced two recent court ruling in Egypt, which they described as a setback to human rights and freedom of expression.
The union of Coptic organisations in Europe has denounced two recent court ruling in Egypt, which they described as a setback to human rights and freedom of expression.
The first of these rulings was issued earlier this week and acquitted the two Salafis, al-Husseini Kamal Mahmoud and Alaa’ Abdel-Sattar Alaa, accused of cutting a Copt’s ear in the Upper Egyptian province of Qena last March. They claimed to have applied the Islamic penalty hodoud against the 45-year-old Ayman Mitry for allegedly having an illicit relation with a Muslim woman. They later said they had been ‘misinformed’ and Mitry was obliged to agree to a ‘conciliation’ with the Salafis, under threat of risking the security of his children and family members. That conciliation meant he relinquished all his legal rights, which was the basis upon which the judge acquitted Mahmoud and Alaa’. Yet many activists in Egypt have raised the question that, even if Mitry had relinquished his right, the civil right of the community should have been upheld.
The union of Coptic organisations in Europe said the acquittal of Mahmoud and Alaa’ meant that, even after the 25 January Revolution, crimes against Copts went unpunished.
The second ruling was against the top comedian Adel Imam, who has been sentenced to three months in prison and a EGP1000 fine for deriding Islam.
WATANI International
25 April 2012