The Alexandria Criminal Court sentenced on Thursday a defendant to death, charged with first-degree murder and caught on CCTV cameras slaughtering a Coptic alcohol merchant earlier in January.
The first trial session was held last month. Soon after, the death penalty verdict was sent to the Grand Mufti for consultation and the final sentence was announced today.
The suspect was hiding in an uninhabited place in Bakous, security sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm. He was then arrested and taken to the Alexandria security department for investigations.
Investigations revealed that the accused man, named Adel Soliman, confessed that he deliberately slaughtered the merchant named Youssef Lamaei, as he sat in front of his store in Sidi Beshr in Alexandria. The defendant reportedly told the court that he killed Lamaei and that he would kill all alcohol merchants if he could.
Video footage from the store’s security camera showed a bearded man approaching the victim from behind before slitting his throat with a knife. There were eyewitnesses to the crime, including the victim’s family members.
The victim's son Tony Lamei was present at the scene: “I saw my father being murdered,” he said.
A bearded person, as appeared on surveillance cameras, was waiting for my father to come open the store and came to kill him, the son told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Tuesday. “We followed the criminal but he raised his knife and then ran away,” he added
“I feel sad for my father who was killed in front of me. I feel sad for a country that was once safe and secure,” he added.
