Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the recent murder of a nun and a businessman in the Wadi al-Natrun area, near the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, according to source from Giza security department.
The suspects, one of whom is a law-school graduate, were arrested in Giza, Alexandria and Assiut. Two machine guns and the vehicle they used in the shooting incident were found in their possession, the source told privately-owned newspaper Al-Watan.
In the incident, which took place last week on a side road close to the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, two cars were hit with gunfire by unknown assailants, injuring at least three people, two of whom later died.
One of the vehicles hit by gunfire was being driven by a man named Bassem Botros Antonios, with three nuns and a doctor on board. One of the nuns, from the Mar Girguis Church in Masr al-Qadima district, was struck by a bullet and killed.
The other two victims were Abd al-Halim Hemeida Abd al-Kereem and his son Hamza, who were traveling in another vehicle. Both father and son were hit by bullets, but only Hamza survived his injuries.
According to the Interior Ministry, Hamza later told investigators that he knew the identity of the shooters, stating that they came from a family in the Wadi al-Natrun area that is involved in a feud with his own family.
A week before the accident, Islamist militants shot and killed Father Rafael Moussa of the Mar Girgis church in Arish, capital of the North Sinai province.