Alexandria Criminal Court, headed on 11 June handed a death sentence to Nehru Abdel-Moneim Tawfiq, 60, charged with premeditated murder of the Coptic priest Fr Arsanius Wadid.
The Court had on 18 May 2022 referred the killer’s file to the Mufti for him to give an Islamic law based opinion on a death sentence for Nehru. The Mufti is the most senior Islamic cleric tasked with issuing fatwa, Islamic legal opinion, and his official approval is a precondition for any death sentence.
Case of killer of Coptic priest in Alexandria referred to Mufti
According to Egyptian law, a death sentence must be appealed in the country’s highest court, the Court of Cassation. Only then would it be final.
Fr Arsanius, priest of the church of the Holy Virgin and Mar-Boulos (St Paul) in Karmouz, Alexandria, had been stabbed to death on the evening of 7 April by Mr Tawfiq, commonly known as Nehru. The 56-year-old priest had been accompanying a group of young men and women from church for a day of spiritual activity and leisure on the beach. They were boarding microbuses to take them home when Mr Nehru approached Fr Arsanius from the back and dealt him a deadly stab in the neck with a knife he was carrying. The priest was rushed to hospital but did not survive the stabbing.
Watani International
12 June 2022