III. Security Interventions and Harassment

18. On 1 April 2009, the security apparatus prevented Copts in Izbat Wassef Ghali Pasha, located in the al-Ayyat district of 6th of October governorate, from praying over the body of a Christian woman in an unlicensed building. A relative of the woman told EIPR researchers that the building has been owned by the Giza Archbishopric since 2003 and is licensed as a Sunday school. Nevertheless, security forces closed it down three years ago, fearing that it would be turned into an unlicensed church. The building was reopened for prayer in 2006 following the agreement of the security services, but sectarian clashes erupted in the town the same day when Muslims heard the news. The clashes began when a group of Muslims from the town attacked Christians’ homes, vandalizing and torching some of them; the next day, Muslims from the adjacent towns joined their neighbors. The clashes, which lasted for two days, ended after security intervened and arrested several Muslims and Christians. According to a report issued by a fact-finding commission sent by the Egyptian Association Against Torture after the 2006 events, the detainees were released after a reconciliation meeting in the town between the two parties to the conflict. After the reconciliation, security forces allowed the building to be used for prayers, but it prohibited prayer services for certain ceremonies, such as marriage and death. A relative of the recently deceased woman told EIPR researchers that they used to hold individual prayers in the building without any problem and that the closest church to the town is the Church of the Virgin in al-Amiriya, located 4 km away.

19. On 2 April 2009, security forces from the Samalout police station, in the governorate of Minya, closed a house of worship, the al-Nima Evangelical Church, used by the evangelical community in the village of Sabaa. Village Christians have been gathering in the structure since December 2008 for prayer services. The church pastor told EIPR researchers that the building was established in 2006 and that all the necessary paperwork had been submitted to obtain a license to use it as a church, but that the security apparatus continued to reject the application, on that grounds that it fears local Muslim opposition to the establishment of a church. This, despite the fact that Christians say there is no opposition. According to the church pastor, the closest church is 25 km away, and the al-Nima Evangelical Church is the only Christian place of worship in the village. Following the decision to close down the building, village Christians staged a two-day sit-in at the structure (3 and 4 April). On the morning of 5 April security forces surrounded the building backed up by Central Security Forces, which prompted some 350 Christians to hold impromptu prayers out in the open outside the building. As of the release of this report, the building remained closed, although security forces stationed near the building did allow the town’s Christians to hold the Easter mass there.

20. On 2 April 2009, Benyamin Atiya was brought before the Samalout prosecutor, in the governorate of Minya, to be questioned on charges of “holding religious services without a permit” in his home in the village of Dabbous. Atiya’s attorney told EIPR researchers that the police had filed an incident report (no. 2514/administrative/Samalout) against his client and referred him to the prosecutor’s office, where a prosecutor questioned him for eight hours before ordering the investigation closed.

Father Dawoud Nashed, the deputy for the Samalout Archbishopric, told EIPR researchers that he had held a benediction service—a Christian rite held in homes seeking a divine blessing—in Atiya’s apartment, after which Atiya was called in for questioning. The priest added that the archbishopric had applied for a permit to build a church in Dabbous, located in Minya, since 2007, but the application had not been settled as of the release of this report. According to Nashed, the village is home to some 1,000 Christians and 300 Muslims, but the closest church is the Church of the Virgin in al-Awr, located 2 km away, and the church is not big enough for Christians from both villages.

21. State Security officers at the Cairo airport prevented Abd al-Latif Mohamed Ahmed from traveling to the US on 24 April 2009, after his passport had already received an exit stamp and shortly before he boarded the plane. Abd al-Latif, who was arrested two years ago on charges of embracing Qur’anist thought, told EIPR researchers that he was surprised to find police at the airport preventing him from boarding the plane. He was then led to a security room and informed that he had been prohibited from travel, based on orders from the State Security police; no explanation was offered for the cause of the order. Airport police then cancelled his exit stamp and asked him to leave the airport.

The EIPR filed a suit with the Court of Administrative Justice (no. 37542/63) against the Minister of Interior, the head of the General Security Department, and the head of the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Department seeking an injunction against the order prohibiting Abd al-Latif from travel. The first court session was held on 30 June 2009.

Abd al-Latif was arrested pursuant to the Emergency Law in May 2007 for his Qur’anist beliefs. The Supreme State Security Court issued a final ruling overturning the arrest and ordering his release, after which the State Security Prosecutor’s Office ordered his release in September 2007. Abd al-Latif, along with four others, was questioned on charges of showing contempt for Islam by his denial of the Prophetic Sunna and the Qur’anist belief that the Qur’an is the sole source of law in Islam.

22. Two Salafi websites, Sawt al-Salaf and Ana Salafi, were shut down briefly in April 2009, during which the following message appeared at the websites’ homepage: “We apologize that the website is currently down; do not forget to pray for us.” The website of the Muslim Brotherhood, which reported the news, said that on 24 April 2009 the security apparatus suspended the two sites for two weeks. The Muslim Brotherhood website stated that the closure was probably due to “the growing Salafi presence and an active media presence in the Alexandrian street, mosques and universities, and the dissemination of the Salafi program among young people and students.”

23. At 7 am on 26 April 2009, Matrouh police forces with the Matrouh apparatus in the Marsa Matrouh governorate demolished a one-story structure (four ground-floor apartments) owned by a Copt, Mufrih Ibrahim Wissa, on the grounds that the building was in violation of construction codes due to it rising “130 cm off the ground.” According to a statement by the building owner given to EIPR researchers, a police force composed of three trucks of Central Security Forces, ten police cars and more than 500 police recruits came to demolish the building. The police escorted the building owner and his brother away, cuffed them and placed them in one of the CSF trucks. The owner of the building also stated that security forces assaulted his daughter, one of the policemen slapped her on the face when they objected to the execution of the demolition order.

According to Wissa’s testimony, he was constructing the building as a home for his children. He started work on the structure two years ago, and after he started laying the foundation, he was summoned by State Security police in Matrouh, where officers threatened to harm him if he turned the structure into a church. Wissa said that both State Security police and the Interior Ministry’s Department of Criminal Investigations made periodic follow-ups while he was working on the building. He added that he was summoned to the Matrouh police station on 20 April 2009 where police officers told him that he had to complete the construction of the four apartments and occupy them within four days; he responded that this was impossible to accomplish in such a short period. One day before the demolition, a committee from the Civil Surveying Council visited the construction site to decide on equipment necessary for the demolition. Nine pillars and the roof of the structure were demolished.

Wissa contacted a relative while the demolition was underway and his relative arrived with a group of Copts who had been at the church praying at the time. They stood in front of the building and managed to stop the demolition, denying that any Muslims gathered during the demolition. Wissa said that after the demolition, he turned the building over to the church for use, no longer wanting to use it himself. The priest of the Church of the Virgin in Matrouh, Father Shenouda Gabra, said that the building was now church property after Wissa had donated it as a church services center following the events. He added that the church had rebuilt the demolished sections although they received no compensation from the governorate. The priest denied that there had been any physical disputes between him or other Christians and the police. He said only verbal arguments had taken place between him and officials, after which the demolition had been suspended.