CAIRO (Reuters) — A monk s death sentence for the murder of a bishop at an Egyptian monastery in 2018 was commuted to life in prison by a Cairo court on Wednesday, a judicial source said.
Wael Saad and Ramon Rasmi Mansour, known by their monastic names Isaiah al-Makari and Faltaous al-Makari, were convicted of the killing of Bishop Epiphanius, 64, the abbot of St Macarius Monastery, some 110 km (70 miles) northwest of Cairo, in a case that sent shockwaves through Egypt s Coptic Christian community.
Saad struck the bishop three times in the back of the head with a steel pipe while Mansour stood guard outside, prosecutors had said during their trial.
Mansour s sentence was reduced to life in prison after he appealed against his death sentence, the judicial source said. Saad s death sentence was upheld by the court hearing the appeal.
The death sentence requires the president s authorization before it is carried out, a standard procedure under Egyptian law, the source added.
Separately, a Cairo court of cassation also reduced by three years the 10-year sentence handed down to an officer convicted of the killing of liberal activist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh in a 2015 protest marking the anniversary of the uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, two judicial sources said.
