CAIRO: Egypt’s Prosecutor General on Saturday charged three men with premeditated murder over the fatal shooting of six Coptic Christians and a Muslim guard in a Christmas Eve attack, a judicial source said.
The North Qena prosecutor has charged the three suspects with “premeditated murder, endangering the lives of citizens and damaging public and private property, a judicial source said.
Police arrested the three on Friday. The alleged gunmen, all Muslims, raked pedestrians with gunfire along a stretch of road that houses two churches and many shops in an attack that sparked sectarian clashes in neighboring villages.
Meanwhile, the prosecution office of Nagaa Hammadi began on Sunday investigations into the riots that broke out after the shootings, according to a judicial source.
The police arrested 14 Muslims and 28 Christians who are being questioned for violent riots that include setting fire to 12 shops, two motorbikes and eight houses that belong to Copts in the neighboring village of Bahgoura.
The perpetrators were charged with incitement of violence and attacking private property.
Meanwhile, lawyers have started collecting powers of attorney from the families of victims and those wounded in the attacks as well as the owners of the shops that were burnt down in the aftermath to prepare for filing a compensation lawsuit alongside the criminal charges pressed by Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud.
Peter El-Naggar, one of the Coptic lawyers, told Daily News Egypt that the defense team will meet with the Prosecutor General Tuesday to deliver a memo stating their right to file for compensation for the damages resulting from the violence that erupted in the village of Farshout last November and the recent attacks in Bahgoura.
“We will present an account of the financial damages suffered by the Copts of Farshout to the Prosecutor General to initiate the compensation lawsuit, whose initial estimation is LE 4 million, said El-Naggar, noting the government’s readiness to pay “as a means of easing the tension.
The defense team also includes legal advisor to Pope Shenouda Ramsis El-Naggar and Nagaa Hammadi’s Bishop Kirilos.
Residents of Nagaa Hammadi were furious at what they called government attempts to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to Egypt s sectarian issues.
Band aid solutions to Muslim-Christian tensions won t work, said Rami, referring to the hurried arrest on Friday of the three suspected shooters.
The Interior Ministry said the three suspects – including resident Mohamed El-Kammuni – surrendered on Friday morning after being surrounded in a nearby sugar cane field.
Police say the attack was related to the alleged rape of a Muslim girl by a Coptic man in the nearby village of Farshout last November.
The town s Copts reject the theory, however.
It s too easy to say that. Now the authorities can say they have their motive, they have their suspects, problem solved, one source at the town s church told AFP.
But we want answers, we want the authorities to address the root cause of the sectarian problems.
Many people in the town believe that sectarian violence in the country is politically-motivated.
It s convenient for the politicians to have Muslims and Christians arguing, one said.
It s because they hate us, another Christian offered as the reason for the violence.
While such theories may vary, many Copts believe that Wednesday s attack was allowed to happen. – Additional reporting by AFP
