Cairo Criminal Court on Monday sentenced a man to death over killing a Coptic priest in the al-Marg area on the eastern outskirts of Cairo in October. The defendant identified as Ahmed Saeed al-Sonbati was charged with murder with malicious intent against Samaan Shehata. Egypt’s Prosecutor General Nabil Sadiq referred the defendant to trial the same month. Sonbati attacked priest Shehata while he was walking across the street on October 12 when the young man blocked the way, bashed his head and abdomen with a cleaver and ran away. Shehata was in Cairo to collect donations for poor Coptic Christians in his Upper Egypt city of Al-Fashn in Bani Suef governorate.

Source: Egypt Independent February 12, 2018 11:15 UTC