CAIRO: Hundreds lined up for the funeral of a Muslim man killed by his Christian brother-in-law, which was held amid tight security Wednesday night.
Security forces shut off the street from both ends and ordered the closure of all the shops lining the funeral’s pathway.
Ahmed Saleh was killed by his wife’s brother Rami Atef Khella, 28, who was angered by his sister’s conversion to Islam three years earlier. Khella also shot his sister, Miriam, 25, and the couple’s 18-month daughter, Nora, who are in critical condition in the hospital.
The shooting occurred in the suburb of Al-Ameriya Tuesday when Khella cut the electricity of Ibrahim Abdulrahman street causing a blackout before descending on the couple’s apartment and opening fire on the family.
Khella was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning and confessed to the killing. He stated that his father and uncle did not participate in the actual crime, but it was his uncle, Raafat Khella, who drove him away from the scene after waiting for him in a car at the end of the road.
The accused told police that he had purchased the gun used in the crime after failing to convince his sister to divorce Saleh.
AFP had reported that “Khella had been searching for his sister for about two years, after she left her home province with her Muslim husband and came to Cairo.
Saleh s father told Al-Dostour newspaper, I want justice for my son because he did nothing wrong. All he was guilty of was marrying the woman he loved. He added that after his son married Miriam her family threatened to kill them which caused him to report the affair to the state security apparatus, which made Miriam s family sign an affidavit to not come near her or her husband. I am waiting for the government’s response, he said, and if it does not give us our rights then it wants people to kill each other. The execution of the killer and his uncle is the only justice [I will accept].
The defendant and his uncle have been detained for four days pending further investigations.
Sectarian tensions between Muslims and Christians have again come to the forefront recently and a Christian was shot dead in Southern Egypt last week after Muslim-Christian clashes which were sparked by accusations of a Muslim flirting with a Coptic girl and a Copt attempting to sell his house within an neighborhood dominated by Copts to a Muslim.
