By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: Police forces guarding the Virgin Church in Imbaba fled when it was attacked by thugs nine days ago, according to a report by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIHR).
EIPR issued a report on Monday including the findings of a field investigation carried out by its researchers on the sectarian attacks that took place in Imbaba on May 7 and May 8, leaving 15 dead and 242 injured.
Last week, violent clashes broke out after Muslims surrounded the Marmina church in Imbaba demanding the handover of a woman allegedly detained by the church after she converted to Islam and left her Christian husband to marry a Muslim. The nearby Virgin church was torched by thugs during the clashes.
The report’s findings were based on testimonies of eyewitnesses and observations of EIPR researchers who documented the clashes and the aftermath.
The “Street Justice” report claimed that police forces knew that salafis would rally around Marmina Church and clashes would likely erupt, yet they did nothing to prevent it.
“Statements from our researchers who were on site of the attacks as well as the testimonies collected from eyewitnesses clearly reveal the security apparatus’ failure to perform its duty,” executive director of the EIPR, Hossam Bahgat, said in the statement.
“The violence and the assault on churches could have been stopped if security forces had acted swiftly to deal with the crisis within the limits of the law,” he added.
The statement said that unless the state enforces justice and the rule of law, more violent clashes of a wider scale would erupt, in addition to the return of terrorist attacks that Imbaba was the center of at the end of the 80s and early 90s,”
Many recurring incidents of violence between Muslims and Christians, in which public and private properties were destroyed, took place without any effective interference from either the military or police forces.
Police forces in Imbaba blamed the military forces for the lack of intervention according to eyewitnesses, while the military forces told the people that their orders were to protect the churches without engaging with the people.
Eyewitnesses told EIPR that if security forces had moved fast and implemented the law, the clashes and the attack on the the church would’ve been prevented.
EIPR called on the Prosecutor General to include the authorities’ role and responsibility in preventing the clashes and protecting the churches in his investigations.
EIPR’s investigations were restricted to the clashes and how authorities responded to them. They didn’t include the woman, Abeer Fakhry, who is accused of triggering the violence.
Fakhry was arrested on Thursday and charged with polyandry.
EIPR called on the Prosecutor General to announce all findings regarding the Imbaba investigations to the public and refer suspects to criminal courts instead of military courts, to be given fair trials.
It added that that would give credibility to the court’s verdict and prevent any accusations that the ruling was influenced by political considerations.
Ten were arrested last week for posting a video believed to have incited the burning of churches in Imbaba, in addition to 230 others arrested for their involvement in the clashes and the burning of the Virgin Church, including a man linked to Fakhry and an owner of a café facing the church.
“All religious institutions must respect the people’s freedom to choose religion without any guardianship or influence,” read the statement.
EIPR expressed its concern of certain groups taking the law into their own hands. It stressed that the state was the only authority that had the jurisdiction to investigate any crime and implement the rule of law.
It called on the government and the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) to protect the people and houses of worship, in a step towards solving sectarian issues which have been deepened by the policies of the former corrupt regime.
