President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has vowed to do better in securing the safety of citizens, after court on Monday sentenced a Muslim man to death by hanging after convicting him of murdering a Christian cleric, Samaan Shehata last October.
According to the Christian Post, the Cairo Criminal Court issued the sentence against Ahmad Saeed, a suspected militant, after the verdict was approved by the country’s top Islamic official, the Grand Mufti — a routine procedure in Egypt in cases involving the death penalty.
The 40-year-old victim was, as reported by Egypt’s Gulf News, a priest at a Coptic church in the nation’s southern province of Beni Suef. He was in Cairo raising donations for the church when he was assaulted.
The sentenced injured another Coptic clergyman who was with Shehata in the same incident, but he survived.
Saeed’s verdict can however be appealed, said The Associated Press on Monday
Attacked with a long knife while leaving his car, the murder of Shehata was captured on video and posted online, which also showed citizens attempting to aid the wounded priest, but it was too late.
Bishop Anba Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the U.K. is earlier quoted by the Christian Post as saying, “This incident makes us once again ask so many questions. Why should a priest not be able to walk safely down a street, especially a suburban street in Cairo? Why should he be chased by a man brandishing a deadly weapon and have no one run to his aid; in actual fact, everyone was running away.”
Attacks on Egypt’s Christians, who account for about 10 percent of the country’s predominantly Muslim population of nearly 95 million, have surged recently with a series of suicide bombings claimed by Daesh (ISIS).
As this website reported in December, nearly quarter of a million security officers were deployed around over 2,626 Churches in Egypt during Christmas celebrations, given the massive attacks and bombings worshipers safe – much more, in a show of solidarity, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi made a symbolic appearance at an Orthodox Christmas Mass at St. Mark’s Cathedral, the seat of the orthodox church in central Cairo.
aaron@ugchristiannews.com
