The Court of Misdemeanours has issued a verdict that all19 people accused of predetermined rioting and attacking Christians on Saturday 24 October in the town of Dairut in Assiut, Upper Egypt, were not guilty.
The riots took place when it was circulated that the 29-year-old Malak Attallah who goes by the name of Romani and had been having an affair with a 17-year-old Muslim girl, posted indecent pictures of the girl on the Internet. As the affair became public and her family got wind of it the young man fled town. In retaliation, the family killed Romani’s father Henry Farouq Attallah, 61, on 16 October. A few days later they took revenge on Dairut’s Coptic population by attacking their homes, and plundering and ruining their businesses and property.
Assiut lawyer Peter Tharwat who represents the Coptic victims, told Watani that the court ruling shocked the Copts. The court, he said, based its verdict on grounds that no incriminating evidence existed against any of the defendants. While the ululations and shouts of joy of the Muslim defendants’ families and friends filled the courtroom upon pronunciation of the verdict, the Copts were heavily disappointed that the culprits went unpunished.
Tharwat says that it was the responsibility of the police to furnish the court with evidence that the culprits had committed the crime. Obviously, he said, no such evidence was put before the court. He voiced fears that the same tragic scenario would be repeated in the trial, scheduled for 29 January 2010, of the four men who murdered Attalah.