Ten men found guilty of sectarian violence

On Tuesday 15 June, a criminal court in Minya, Upper Egypt, found ten Muslim men guilty of sectarian violence which took place in May 2016 in the village of Al-Karm, Abou Qarqas in Minya Governate.

The men are believed to have been part of a mob that attacked the Christian community in Al-Karm after a Christian man was accused of being in a relationship with a divorced Muslim woman. During the violence, the mother of the accused man, Mrs Suad Thabet, 72, was attacked, beaten and stripped naked in public.

The ten men were each sentenced to five years in prison. However, in December 2020 three other individuals accused of assaulting Mrs Thabet were acquitted. Mrs Thabet and her family have appealed the acquittals, and CSW’s sources now report that it is likely these men will be found guilty too.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a local human rights organisation, welcomed the sentences in a statement, saying: “Although it has taken five years to reach this verdict, these sentences are a step in the right direction to apply justice without discrimination between citizens on the bases of their religion rather than applying the usual customary reconciliation sessions.”

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “CSW welcomes the sentencing of ten of the individuals found to be complicit in sectarian violence in Al-Karm, although the Criminal Court in Minya has indeed been painfully slow in implementing justice. We now call for the remaining individuals responsible for the violent attacks on the village’s Christian community, and particularly on Mrs Suad Thabet, to also be held to account.”