An Egyptian court on Sunday postponed the trial of the New Year’s Eve bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria that left 23 Copts dead. The trial is now set for 13 November.
Judicial sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the Court for Urgent Cases in Alexandria postponed the trial to allow for the completion of investigations, questioning of former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, and inclusion of his statements surrounding the incident to be added to the case file.
On 13 September, the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy, and Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud to protest the slow pace of the investigations into who was behind the attack.
Joseph Malak, director of the Egyptian Center for Development Studies and Human Rights, said the defense team asked the court's permission to obtain an official copy of investigations into the attack from the State Security Agency.
Camille Sadiq, Melli Council Secretary for the Coptic Church in Alexandria, said the Church is demanding that “the Attorney General be compelled to disclose the reasoning behind the release of the suspects, to cancel the decision to ban the publication of information surrounding the case, and to announce the investigation results.”
Also in the lawsuit, the Church demanded that Sharaf be compelled to “order the interior minister to rapidly implement the prosecutor’s decisions and to promptly refer the defendants to the proper prosecution.”
Meanwhile, Father Maqar Fawzy, who was leading prayers at the moment the Two Saints Church was bombed, called on the media to focus on the case so that the real perpetrators could be brought to justice.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
