The Supreme State Security Court on Sunday sentenced in absentia 11 Copts to 25 years in prison, and five years of police surveillance thereafter, and eight Muslims to 15 years in prison, and three years of police surveillance thereafter, in the case of the sectarian strife that took place in Abu Qurqas, Minya.
On 21 May 2012, the Minya Criminal Court had acquitted the Muslims and sentenced the Copts to life imprisonment, which prompted the latter to plead for a retrial.
The Supreme State Security Court held Sunday’s session in Beni Suef instead of Minya for security reasons.
The clashes broke out on 19 April 2011 when a Coptic lawyer named Alaa Roushdy built a road bump in front of his house. Two people were killed and four others wounded, and some twenty houses and shops belonging to Copts were destroyed.
