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Four Muslims Jailed For Inter-Faith Clashes In Egypt
SOHAG, Egypt, Feb 5 (News Agencies) - Four Muslims were sentenced Monday to between one and 12 years in prison with hard labor while 92 others were acquitted over clashes with Christians that left 21 dead in southern Egypt in January last year.
The verdict was greeted in the courtroom here with cries of joy by Kosheh residents, but Coptic Christian clerics elsewhere in Egypt condemned the sentences as too lenient and encouraging more sectarian killings.
None of the four was found guilty of murder, but rather on lesser charges of manslaughter, arms possession and assault in Kosheh, south of Sohag, that left 20 Christians and one Muslim dead.
Before handing down his verdict, Judge Mohammed Afifi blamed local Coptic priests for fanning the flames of what became the worst Muslim-Christian violence in two decades.
The judge sentenced Fayez Amin Abdel Rahim to consecutive terms of 10 years and two years, both with hard labor, for possession of firearms, manslaughter and assault that caused injury to others.
Mohammed Fawzi Shabib was sentenced to two years of hard labor for manslaughter and injuring others, while Abul Ela Abdel Alem and Al-Fangari Abdu Shaker each were condemned to one year with hard labor.
The latter pair were found guilty of damaging vehicles during the violence, which erupted on January 2, 2000, in the Christian-majority town of 35,000 people, amid lingering tension over a dispute on New Year's Eve.
Some 38 Muslim defendants had faced the death penalty from among the 96 Muslims and Christians who went on trial here in June.
None of the four who were convicted were in the courtroom when the verdict was read. All the defendants had been freed before the Muslim and Christian holidays in late December.
Christian clerics denounced the court verdict.
"That means Muslims are encouraged to kill Christians. They are being told 'Go ahead. Kill Coptic Christians,'" Bishop Wissa of Balyana, which includes the town of Kosheh, said.
Bishop Bassanti of Helwan, near the capital Cairo, urged the court to reconsider its verdict to "preserve national unity" after saying that the decision was "too lenient" and "makes light of human life."
Before handing down the light sentences hinted at in earlier hearings, Judge Afifi accused Kosheh priests Ishaq, Bissada Ghebrial, and Gabriel Abdel Messih of being "morally responsible" for the violence.
"They failed to keep order and calm and set the fire of sedition," he said.
He urged Pope Shenuda III, the head of Egypt's minority Coptic community, to take measures against them.
Diaa Rashwan, a researcher at the government Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, sympathized with Copts' feelings of injustice but urged them to respect court decisions and hope for a ruling by the cassation court.
A cassation court rules normally on the technical merits of a case, but does not have the scope of an appeals court.
"The judges decide on the evidence they have in hand. One cannot ask for political intervention in court cases because it would be a serious precedent," Rashwan said.
As the rest of the world was celebrating the turn of the millennium, trouble broke out December 31 in Kosheh, sparked by a financial quarrel between a Muslim and a Coptic merchant over a piece of cloth.
Three days later, 21 people were dead, 44 were hurt, and the unrest had spread to Dar el-Salam on the back of false rumors that Copts working at Kosheh water plant had poisoned the water supply to kill Muslims.
Following the violence, the U.S. Copts Association charged that Muslim clerics had incited a mob to kill the Christians while the police had turned a blind eye.
Many villages in Upper Egypt have large proportions of Copts, who account for around six percent of Egypt's mainly Muslim population of 65 million.
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