CAIRO: Police say they have found a priest’s wife, whose disappearance on Sunday July 18 had led to a sit-in by Copts at Cairo’s grand cathedral in response to rumors that she was abducted.
Police said that they delivered Kamilia Shehata Zakher, 25, to her husband, Tedaros Saman, Priest of Saint Mark’s Church in Mowas Cathedral in Minya, late Friday evening.
Zakher disappeared after a visit to her father on Sunday evening.
Ogabios, bishop of Mowas Cathedral, told Daily News Egypt that “security services delivered the wife to officials in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Abbaseya in the late hours of Friday evening.”
Ogabios refused to disclose any details regarding her disappearance or her whereabouts at the time she was missing.
“We don’t care where she was, what’s important is that she’s been delivered to the church,” he said.
“We will keep her in Cairo for a while and then she will return to her village and her husband,” he added.
The bishop claimed that Egypt’s intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman played a big role in Zakher’s return.
The disappearance of the priest’s wife sparked wide protests among Copts.
Hundreds of Copts started an open sit-in and demonstrated at St. Mark’s Cathedral on Thursday, demanding Zakher’s return.
A source at the church who asked to remain anonymous speculated that Zakher had disappeared because of domestic disputes.
“The wife had taken a 15-day vacation from work and withdrew LE 21,000 from her bank account,” the source told Daily News Egypt.
“The wife was staying with one of her girlfriends in Cairo. She was not abducted and she did not convert to Islam; there is no suspicion of any criminal act regarding her disappearance.”
Eid Labib, a Copt businessman and Minya MP, said in a press statement that what was published about Zakher’s conversion to Islam was not true.
Labib told Daily News Egypt that “the priest’s wife was at odds with her husband since last Sunday, that’s why she left the house and went to one of her girlfriends.”
The church source told Daily News Egypt that the church gave direct instructions to the priests not to give any statements regarding details of Zakher’s disappearance.
