ICC Note: On July 20, a Coptic Christian who owned a barbershop reported to police that a Muslim man had broken into his shop and made threatening comments towards his family. The Christian appears to have died at the police station, and his family noticed that his body had injuries consistent with an act of violence. Police have reportedly threatened the family that if they investigate the cause of death, then the police will bring charges against the family. Many of Egypt’s Christians do not report crimes to the police for fear of similar treatment.  

07/30/2018 Egypt (Coptic Solidarity) –  Maher Girgis Tawfiq, a 45-year-old father-of-four from the city of Beni Suef, had gone to the local police station on Friday 20 July to complain about alleged threats he had received following a disagreement with a Muslim man from whom he had hired a car.

But at around midnight, his wife received a call from the police, telling her that her husband had fainted and been transferred to hospital in a critical condition. The family rushed to the hospital, where they were told that Tawfiq had died at the reception of the emergency department.

The police told local media that the Copt had died after falling into a coma due to his diabetes, but his family say he was not diabetic and that they believe he was murdered.

“We headed to the morgue to see Maher’s body and noticed some bruises on different parts of it – a blue bruise at the back of his neck, his lips turned blue, and we saw white foam coming out of his mouth,” his cousin, Sameh, told World Watch Monitor. “There was also blood in his pupils.” (The family showed photographs of the dead body to World Watch Monitor – too graphic to publish – which match up with this description.)

Sameh said the prosecutor that they had called to investigate the case tried to convince them to take the body without a post-mortem, and that, having insisted on it, they were then told the report would “take time”.

“A group of police officers threatened Maher’s brothers that if they insisted that he was killed at the police station or demanded an autopsy, they would receive charges, meaning the police would fabricate charges against them,” Maher Tawfiq’s brother-in-law, George Erian, told World Watch Monitor.

“The perpetrator must be brought to a fair trial,” he said. “I will not find consolation until the perpetrators are held accountable. We want to feel that we live under the rule of law, with justice and equality, and not in a state of repression within the walls of state institutions, and of bullying outside those walls.”

Following the post-mortem examination, Tawfiq’s family received his body and a funeral service took place at the Church of St. Anba Antonius and St. Anba Paula, in Beni Suef, on Saturday, 21 July, after which he was buried in the family cemetery.

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For interviews with Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.