ICC Note: The gruesome video published by the jihadists from ISIS has raised the level of awareness of dangers for Christians in Libya. The 21 who were killed are not all of those missing. At least another 7 are known to have been kidnapped and no information has emerged leaving their families fearing the worst.
02/17/2015 Egypt (Ahram) Seven Egyptians are still kidnapped or missing since August and September 2014 in Libya, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms wrote in a letter to the Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi Monday.
“We have some information and facts that there are a number of Egyptians who are still kidnapped in Libya, and this through communication with their families,” the commission said in the letter in which they detailed the incidents.
The commission notified officials at the foreign ministry about the incidents since they occurred, Mina Thabet, a researcher at the commission for religious freedoms and minorities affairs, told Ahram Online.
“The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms is making assurances that it is ready to offer any new information we have,” they said in the letter.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms is a human rights group based in Giza which documents human rights violations and follows the conditions of Egyptian workers in Libya, especially the treatment received by Christian Egyptians.
The commission also called upon the president to take the necessary measures to find accurate information about where they are or if they are alive.
Four Egyptians were kidnapped on the borders of Libyan coastal city Sirte on their way back to Egypt from Tripoli to the Salloum crossing on 24 August 2014: Gamal, Raafat and Roumany Matta Hakim, and Adel Sedky Hakim.
The armed groups questioned them, as well as a Muslim who was with them, about their religious identity. The latter was allowed to continue back to Egypt, according to his testimony to the commission.
Two days later, another Christian Egyptian, Mina Shehata, was kidnapped under similar circumstances.
On 15 September 2014, two Egyptians disappeared: Shenouda Samy Adly Ateya and Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Gawad El-Beheiry in the northwestern Libyan city Misrata after leaving work at 4 p.m. Their car was not found and there is no information on them.
Thabet told Ahram Online that it seems that a group other than the Islamic State (IS) kidnapped them, since IS has not claimed responsibility for their disappearance.…
