Three men, who stripped and dragged a 70-year-old Christian woman through an Egyptian village over rumours that her son was having an affair with a Muslim girl, have been acquitted by a court.
In 2016, an angry mob attacked Soad Thabet after it was learnt that her son was allegedly in a relationship with a Muslim woman.
The attack was accompanied by the torching of Coptic Christian homes and villagers angrily calling for the religious minority to be expelled. The three defendants – a father and his two sons – were acquitted after a re-trial where they were initially sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Local Coptic newspaper Watani reported Thabet was distraught upon hearing the verdict.
‘After all these years, how can they be let off after they stripped me naked in front of everyone to see? What can I say? God will bring back my rights,’ she said according to the publication.
Leading rights group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemned the verdict in a statement urging the public prosecution to lodge an appeal.
‘Perpetrators of sectarian attacks must be held accountable for their actions in order to avoid their repetition,’ the watchdog said.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi lambasted the violence at the time after it turned into a national controversy, describing it as ‘unacceptable’.
The miscreants threatened the woman to leave the village before they misbehaved with her and set the house on fire. The victims told the church officials that when she refused to leave the village, they assaulted her.
Egypt has over 10 crores population, out of which 10 to 15 percent of the country’s population belong to Christians. Christians have been facing persecution in Egypt as they are regularly being threatened by the Muslims to convert to Islam. In recent years ISIS has also targeted churches, killing dozens.
