By Essam Fadl
CAIRO: A fact-finding mission arrived in Aswan on Wednesday to launch an investigation into the incidents surrounding the Marinab Church, which started late last month.
A subsequent protest in Cairo demanding Coptic rights was met with violence by Egypt’s army forces, leaving 25 dead and more than 300 injured on Sunday.
Minister of Justice Abdel Aziz El-Guindy ordered the formation of the mission headed by his assistant, Chancellor Amr Marwan, who also headed the fact-finding mission for the events of the January 25 Revolution.
Sources inside the mission told Daily News Egypt that they will visit the location of and meet officials in the church to examine the licensing. They will also meet Muslim residents of the village who filed a complaint claiming that the church was licensed to only be a guesthouse owned by a Copt.
Sources added that the mission will look at the prosecution’s investigations and the complaints filed, in addition to meeting representatives from the local councils and governorate officials.
Village residents told Daily News Egypt there are attempts to hold reconciliation sessions between Muslims and Copts of the village.
However, analysts and rights groups have repeatedly called for more measures to be taken and for the laws already in place to be enacted, saying that reconciliation sessions will no longer suffice.
