An Egyptian court yesterday sentenced 15 Muslim defendants to a suspended prison term of one year. They had been found guilty after being charged with attacking a Coptic Church in a village south of Cairo last year.
Each of the perpetrators was fined 500 Egyptian pounds (£20) on charges of inciting sectarian strife, harming national unity and vandalizing private property. The number of defendants has been variously reported, with Associated Press giving the figure as 19. They may appeal the sentence.
The court also fined a Christian man, the owner of the church, 360,000 Egyptian pounds (£14,290) for establishing the church without an official licence.
The violence occurred on December 22, 2017, when dozens of Muslim villagers from Kafr al-Waslin, in Egypt's Giza governorate, stormed the church following their Friday prayers, smashing windows, destroying property and beating Christians inside in the church.
Security services later came and dispersed the attackers, and took the injured to hospital.
The Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese of Atfih said at the time that the attackers had been in their 'hundreds'. They also noted that they had appealed for the church, which had housed believers for more than 15 years, to be legally licensed in accordance with a 2016 Egyptian building law.
Coptic Christians represent about 10 per cent of the majority Muslim Egyptian population. The community has been subject to intense attacks in recent years, particularly from Islamist fundamentalist groups.
In 2015 21 young Coptic Christians were beheaded by ISIS in Libya, with footage of the killings released online. In December 2016, the jihadists claimed responsibility for a Cairo Coptic church bombing that killed 27.
In 2017 ISIS vocally incited violence against the community, forcing hundreds to flee their homes in northern Egypt in February. Palm Sunday bombings on two Egyptian churches, including the seat of the Coptic pope, killed at least 45 and injured over 100. An attack on a church bus in May claimed another 29 Coptic lives.
Additional reporting by Reuters
