Two men who killed a Copt and injured two others in the district of al-Wardayan in Alexandria in December 2020 have been charged with premeditated murder.
Basing upon extensive investigation, Alexandria’s Minya al-Bassal Prosecution charged Nasser Ahmed Muhammed who goes by the name (Nasser al-Sambo), and his brother Ali Ahmed Muhammad (Ali al-Sambo) with premeditated murder of Ramsis Boulos Hermina, 47. The following legal step will be referring them to court. The Sambos are now in police custody.
In a hate crime that rocked Egypt, Ramsis Hermina, who had been in his shop where he sells plastics and household goods in Wardayan on the evening of 10 December, was attacked by the well known local thug Nasser al-Sambo. Sambo and his two brothers Ali and Anwar are famous for their religious fanaticism and hatred of Christians, and have always harassed local Copts, especially the shop owners on the street where they live, with whom they had frequent disputes. Sambo had served time in prison on thuggery and law breaking charges. Once out of prison he escalated his harassment of Copts, claiming they had testified against him and thus secured his prison sentence.
On the morning of 10 December, the mother of the Sambos, who was in poor health, died. A few hours later, Nasser Sambo and one of his brothers left their home in a fit of rage, and headed to the Copts’ shops armed with knives, a sword, and clubs, shouting obscenities and abuse against Christians, and accusing them of being the cause of the mother’s death. Mr Hermina, who was then in his shop, heard the commotion and sensed there would be trouble so proceeded to take in goods that he usually places outside his shop to display to passers-by. But the Sambo brothers were too quick for him; they caught him, the Sambo brother held him tight for Nasser Sambo to stab him in the right abdomen and neck. Mr Hermina fell just as as his brother Adel, 60, who owns a shop next to his, and another Coptic neighbour shop owner, Tareq Fawzy Shenouda, rushed to the rescue. Adel Hermina was stabbed in his left side, while Mr Shenouda was hit on the head with a club and stabbed close to the heart. The Sambos ruined all three shops and the goods in them.
The police was called and the three Copts rushed to hospital. Ramsis Hermina breathed his last, Adel Hermina was treated and discharged from hospital two days later, and Mr Shenouda underwent surgery and was moved to intensive care.
In the meantime, the police directly moved to the scene and cordoned the district off as investigations took place.
Before the prosecutor, the two Sambo brothers denied the allegations of killing a man and injuring two others, but admitted there had been previous disputes with the victims.
On social media, Copts voiced wrathful fears that Nasser Sambo would be declared mentally unbalanced and would thus escape conviction. But other Copts gave recent examples of death sentences meted to men who committed murder crimes against Copts, and said that justice would take its course.
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