ANSD : Egypt arrests students for mocking Christianity online

FRI 22 - 11 - 2024

Date: Feb 12, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Egypt arrests students for mocking Christianity online

_{Agence France Presse}
CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have arrested four students for mocking Christian rituals in an online video and ordered them to be kept in custody for four days, a judicial source said Monday.

The university students aged between 19 and 24 were accused of being in "contempt of the Christian religion", the source said.

If tried and found guilty they could face up to five years in prison.

They were arrested last week and remanded in custody by the state prosecutor overnight Sunday.

At the end of January they posted a video on YouTube in which they were allegedly seen mocking Coptic hymns and prayers.

But they later removed the clip and posted an apology online.

Copts, a Christian minority which accounts for 10 percent of Egypt's 98 million people, have repeatedly complained of marginalization in the mostly Muslim country.

In recent years they have been targeted by Daesh (ISIS) militants.

Trials for "contempt" of Christianity are rare in Egypt where more frequently charges are leveled for contempt of Islam usually against liberal Muslim intellectuals.

Readers Comments (0)

Add your comment

Enter the security code below*


Can't read this? Try Another.