The 32-year-old Egyptian Emad Yacoub Rizq from Beni Mazar, Minya, in Upper Egypt met his death yesterday in Tripoli, Libya, after he was arrested at the airport as he boarded the plane back to Egypt. His body lies in Tripoli General Hospital waiting to be moved back home to Cairo.
The victim’s cousin, Samuel Fayeq Rizq from Beni Mazar, told Watani that Emad Rizq had been working in Libya for two years. “Like most Upper Egypt Copts who are used to travel in groups of family or friends,” he said, “Rizq was in Libya with his brother and mine. In the wake of the beheading of the 20 Copts last month at the hands of IS in Libya and the subsequent Egyptian airstrikes against IS targets in the country, the Rizqs decided to go home. After several days’ delay, they finally secured a plane ticket to Cairo.”
Samuel Rizq said that, as Emad was boarding the plane, one of the security guards shoved his luggage with his foot, upon which Emad reproached him. The guard then let out a string of insults and abuse against Egypt, and reached for his pistol which when went off by mistake and hit him in the foot. Screaming, he accused Emad’s of having shot him, but the latter claimed he had no gun in the first place. The Fajr Libya guards caught Emad, beat him up, and took him to the police station where they tortured him till he lost consciousness. At that they moved him to hospital where he died.
The Egyptian authorities are trying through the Egyptian embassy in Tunis to have the body flown back to Egypt for burial. Egypt has no diplomatic mission in Libya.
Watani International
7 March 2015
