Four arrests for Copt cathedral bombing which killed 28; also Sisi promises new ‘mega-church’ for 2018
ICC Note: Immediately following the December 12 church bombing in Cairo, president al-Sisi named the attacker and vowed justice to the families. Since then, four people have been arrested in relation to the bombing and the death toll has risen to 28. While the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, Egypt has attempted to link the actions to the ousted Muslim Brotherhood. Additionally, al-Sisi has now promised to build a mega-church on the outskirts of Cairo by 2018.
01/10/2017 Egypt (WWM): Egyptian police have arrested four people in the wake of the bombing that killed dozens of Christians at Cairo’s Coptic Christian cathedral last month, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
The death toll from the bombing at a chapel next to St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo has risen to 28, the Health Ministry added.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said following the attack that the perpetrator was a man named Mahmoud Shafik, who had worn a suicide vest, and that security forces were seeking two more people in conjunction with the attack.
The Interior Ministry said it had arrested one of the two, as well as three others who were part of the same cell. It added that one man was still on the run.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Egyptian Government has sought to link the attack to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood has condemned the attack and accused Sisi’s administration of failing to protect the Church, Reuters reported.
President Sisi, who attended funerals at the cathedral for the victims, attended Christmas Eve Mass in the Coptic Cathedral for the third year. He reiterated his promise to rebuild all churches destroyed or damaged in the violence of August 2013. He also pledged 100,000 Egyptian pounds (5,400 US dollars) towards construction of what will become the largest church (built at the same time as the largest new mosque) in a new political and administrative area planned for the edge of Cairo. He said the church is due to be inaugurated in 2018.
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