WATANI International
26 July 2009
In the aftermath of the torching of the village church in the hamlet of Ezbet Basilious in Beni-Mazar, Minya, Fulla Asaad was charged with prompting Reda Huzayin to set the church on fire—Huzayin was charged with arson. They were released on EGP500 bail each. Asaad is the 27-year-old Coptic woman whose house is adjacent to the church and who reported the fire to the police when three Muslim men accessed the church by breaking into the courtyard of her house, carrying kerosene and inflammable material. Asaad and her 80-year-old mother-in-law are the only eye witnesses to the torching; now Asaad’s testimony has been invalidated since she has been turned into a suspect. In addition to prompting Huzayin to torch the church, she has been charged with stopping the village Muslims, including the church guards, from putting out the fire. Huzayin, 29, has a strong alibi, but has yet been charged with arson. The charges against Asaad and Huzayin were brought upon the testimony of the two church guards who, according to reports by neighbours, had not been stationed at their posts when the fire broke out. A third witness against Asaad and Huzayin, was brought in by the deputy mayor.
Some seven Coptic villagers are waiting their turn to testify as defence witnesses before Beni-Mazar prosecution in favour of Asaad and Huzayin but are not sure they will be allowed to testify in the first place. The Coptic villagers are livid at the torching of the small church which they built, despite their very limited means, on land donated by the Asaads. They insist that Asaad and Huzayin have been charged with the torching in order to use them as negotiating chips to pressure the Coptic villagers into giving up all rights to using the building as a church. The lawyers representing the Copts told Watani the charges against Asaad and Huzayin were but the most recent of the by-now customary oppressive ploys used by the security officials to turn the Coptic victims into alleged attackers, thereby twisting the arm of the Coptic community into giving up basic citizenship rights.