Egyptian sentenced to death for murdering elderly Coptic doctor
Egyptian sentenced to death for murdering elderly Coptic doctor
An Egyptian man has been sentenced to death for killing an 82-year-old Coptic Christian doctor.
1 min read
Egypt's Coptic minority in recent years have been subject to violence [Getty]
Egypt has sentenced an alleged Islamic State supporter to death for stabbing and killing an 82-year-old Christian doctor in Cairo.
The September 2017 killing took place when the 40-year-old, pretending to be a patient, requested to see the doctor. He started stabbing the doctor as soon as he was shown into the clinic's examination room, and stabbed the physician's assistant when she intervened to try and stop the attack.
Prosecutors said the defendant embraced the extremist ideology of the Islamic State group, which spearheads an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula. IS has vowed to target Egypt's minority Christians to punish them for their support of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Saturday's verdict was sent to Egypt's top Muslim cleric for ratification, a formality whose outcome is non-binding.
Earlier this month gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt killing at least seven.
The attackers opened fire on the bus in Minya taking Christian pilgrims to a remote desert monastery.
Copts, a Christian minority that make up 10 percent of Egypt's 96 million people, have in recent years been repeatedly targeted by the Islamic State militant group.
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