ICC Note: While many of Egypt’s Christians were hopeful that under the leadership of President Sisi their situation would improve, the reality is that the situation has returned to something similar to the days of President Mubarak. The year under Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood still stand out as especially bad, but Christians still face regular abuse not just from extremists but also from security forces who should be protecting Christians but often do not.
09/21/2014 Egypt (Egypt Daily News) – Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) head Nagib Gabriel is slated to hold a conference with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to discuss the situation facing Christians in Egypt following the beating and detainment of Copts in Al-Minya.
The meeting will take place as soon as the president is back from the UN General Assembly session in the US, according to Gabriel, adding that he will provide Al-Sisi with a comprehensive report on the situation.
Less than a week ago, 22 people were detained for rioting. Christians were protesting to call for the return of a kidnapped Christian woman who has been missing for more than a week, demanding that the police find her. “Her family has the right to know where she is,” said Nader Solaiman, founder of the Christian Youth movement.
Her husband had filed a report on her kidnap, but nothing had been done, according to Solaiman.
The police clashed with the protesters and stormed the following day in the middle of the night into houses and shops of Christians and beat people, including women and children, said Solaiman. Some were tied and hit, others dragged, while men and women were “insulted”.
“This is a shameful incident in the history of the interior ministry,” said Solaiman. The movement asked on Sunday Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb to open an investigation into Al-Minya’s security director and dismiss him from his post. “Al-Minya is in a bad state, and the security director has no role at all,” Solaiman added.
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