No justice for Christians before Egyptian courts

The Egyptian judiciary imposes more severe penalties on Coptic Christians than on Muslim citizens. This serious allegation was raised by the Society for Threatened Peoples on Tuesday, because the criminal court of the city Minya had sentenced twelve Copts to life in prison on Monday after a deadly dispute with Muslim citizens. Eight Muslims who were also accused got acquitted. "Unfortunately, this verdict is not an isolated incident," reported the STP's Africa consultant, Ulrich Delius. At the end of April 2012, for example, an Egyptian special court had stopped all proceedings in connection with the so-called Maspero massacre of October 9, 2011 for "lack of evidence". Back then, 27 Christians had been killed and 320 injured. "It is a disgrace for the the rule of law, but Christians are often treated unjustly by Egypt's judiciary."

Monday's harsh verdict followed a dispute that had broken out between between Copts and Muslims on April 18, 2011, in the village of Abu Qurqas (Minya province) – 240 kilometers south of the capital Cairo. The conflict started when a Coptic lawyer's family set up a road-bump in front of their house to slow down the traffic. When Muslim neighbors protested, an open conflict broke out and three people got killed – Copts and Muslims! The dispute broke out again during the funeral for the victims. Four houses of Copts in the nearby village Fekriya were burned and many windows of Coptic stores were smashed. 75 percent of the inhabitants of the village Abu Qurqas are Copts.

Originally, five to fifteen years in prison had been expected in the trial – but the prosecutors had extended the charges by claiming murder, endangering public safety, arson and illegal possession of arms.

On April 5, 2012, a court in the city of Anoub (Asyut province, Middle Egypt) had reiterated a sentence against the Copt Makarem Diab: six years in prison for blasphemy. After an argument with a Muslim school-employee, the 49-year-old was sentenced to prison and had tried to appeal against this.

On April 4, 2012 the 17-year-old Copt Gamal Abdou Massoud was sentenced to three years in prison because he allegedly posted cartoons that vilified the Muslim religion on his facebook-page. The teenager denied the allegations.