ICC Note: On Monday, president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt condemned those responsible for the recent attacks on a Christian woman and community on May 20th. In the event, approximately 300 Muslims attacked a 70 year-old woman, stripping her and beating her before parading her through the village streets. President Sisi has assured the Coptic and international community that those responsible will face full consequences for their actions.
06/01/2016 Egypt (All Africa): Egypt’s president said on Monday that those responsible for a recent assault on “an Egyptian woman” will be punished, in reference to an elderly Christian who was stripped naked and paraded in an Egyptian village last week.
On May 20, around 300 Muslims attacked the woman and set fire to a number of Christians’ homes in a village in the Upper Egypt province of Minya, following rumours that her son had an affair with a Muslim woman, according to the local church and eyewitnesses.
“I did’t say a ‘so and so’ Egyptian woman because we are all the same and we have equal rights and duties,” Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a ceremony held to inaugurate a new project for slums’ development.
Describing the incident as unacceptable, Sisi said that wrongdoers will be held accountable and punished “no matter how many they are.”
Coptic Orthodox Christians make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s population and are the Middle East’s biggest Christian community.
Coptic Orthodox Christian Pope Tawadros II called for implementing the law and holding those responsible for it accountable before a customary reconciliation could be brokered in the village, according to a statement issued by the Cathedral on Sunday.
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