Coptic Church renews calls to investigate Alexandria Church Bombing

28/08/2011

Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria renewed demands Saturday for authorities to reveal who planned the bombing of the Two Saints Church that left 23 Copts dead on 1 January.

Nader Morcos of the Coptic Ecclesiastical Council in Alexandria criticized the slow pace of the investigation and lack of steps taken to compensate the families of those killed, eight months after the attack took place.

He said the Coptic Orthodox Church is demanding the intervention of the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Hussein Tantawi, and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to speed up the process of providing redress for the murders.

Morcos added that a lawyer has been assigned to request the attorney general call for expediting the investigation.

The lawyer for the church and the families of those killed, Joseph Malak, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that several legal procedures will be undertaken to address what he described as the deliberate slowness of the investigation.

Malak said Copts are wondering why the investigation into the killings is taking so long, and that many of them believe that religious discrimination is continuing after the revolution.

News reports have said that documents seized from the now-disbanded State Security Investigation Services after the revolution implicated ex-Interiror Minister Habib al-Adly in the attack. This information, however, has not been confirmed by any official source.

Translated from the Arabic Edition

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