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Egypt: Terrorism Circuit Court Considers Death Penalty for Two Men Who Bombed Protestant Church

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Amid efforts by Egypt’s Islamic government to improve its relations with Egyptian Christians, the Cairo Criminal Court’s terrorism circuit has referred the case of two men convicted of a church bombing to the Grand Mufti for his opinion on whether the death penalty should be applied, Watani International (WI) reports.

The two men are among 14 defendants, including eight women, who belonged to a terror group that bombed the Protestant church of al-Niema (Grace) in the Cairo northeast suburb of al-Marg in 2023. The bombing resulted in casualties and fatalities although the numbers have not been widely reported.

“The Public Prosecution charged the defendants with joining a terrorist group established against the law and Constitution,” WI reports. “The group aimed at disrupting public order, imperiling society’s security, curbing constitutional and legal rules, preventing State institutions and public authorities from carrying out their duties, assaulting the personal freedoms of citizens, their public liberties and rights, and impairing national unity.”

Egyptian courts may only apply the death penalty if it is approved by the Mufti, an official legal expert in Sharia law who can issue a ‘fatwa’ death sentence.

Egypt ranks 38 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.