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Politics : The Arab-Israeli Solution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: No BS here who wrote (768)	4/2/2002 12:56:33 AM
From: joseph krinsky	Respond to of 2279

You're missing the point. adishakti.org

To: No BS here who wrote (768)	4/2/2002 1:07:23 AM
From: joseph krinsky	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2279

Egyptian Christians face persecution According to Amnesty International’s annual report on Egypt, “torture continued to be systematic” in the headquarters of the State Security Intelligence and police stations all across Egypt. At least seven deaths in police custody during 1999 were attributed to torture and abuse, the London-based human rights group claimed. Compass Direct, a news agency that raises awareness of Christians being persecuted for their faith, recently reported on the persecution of three Coptic Christians. Coptic storeowner Sourial Gayed Isshak, 37, was arrested and jailed March 9 by local police in the Dar El-Salaam district of Sohag governate for insulting Islam. According to an official complaint filed against Isshak, the merchant was heard cursing Islam in the streets on December 30, 1999. However, according to Isshak, the charges stem from a confrontation at the local police station that day. Apparently, Isshak went to his store on that day and found a Muslim peddler had built a kiosk illegally in front of his store. When Isshak reported this violation to police, he was insulted and ridiculed. The police took no action to take down the illegal kiosk. Last year, a local court ordered to have the illegal structures removed, but the governor of Sohag rescinded the order. Isshak could face a maximum two-year prison sentence if convicted of this misdemeanor. Aziz Tawfik Reskalah, 56, was arrested by State Security Intelligence officials June 7 at his home in El Mahalla el-Kubra, 60 miles north of Cairo. Police accused him of “preaching the gospel” to another individual. Rezkalah was stripped of his clothing, blindfolded and beaten, demanding that he confess to the accusation. Rezkalah, a married man with three children, is the chair of the board of directors of a Christian organization called Nour El-Injil (“Light of the Gospel”). Nour El-Injil sponsors a variety of spiritual activities for Coptic Christians in El Mahalla el-Kubra, where its ministry has reportedly decreased the number of Copts willing to convert to Islam. Rezkalah, who was released after an all-night ordeal, said it was the fourth time he had been subjected to such treatment by SSI officials over the past four years. Coptic Christian Shaiboub Arsal, 38, was sentenced June 5 to 15 years of hard labour for the 1998 double murder of his cousin and another young Copt in southern Egypt’s El-Kosheh village. According to an article in the Al-Ahram newspaper, the verdict delivered by a panel of three judges stated that there were “verbal, technical proofs” that Arsal was the killer. Coptic activist and lawyer Mamduh Nakhla termed the judgement “extremely puzzling and highly political.” Nakhla said the defence had provided the court with “20 pieces of evidence that (Arsal) was innocent.” Among them was “strong proof of fabricated evidence and witness tampering by local police authorities”. Arsal, married with three children, has already been imprisoned for 22 months. Under the Egyptian prison system, criminals sentenced to hard labour are initially incarcerated in more rigorous prisons, where they work in factories and are allowed one family visit per month. During the murder investigation, police allegedly abused over 1,000 Coptic Christians in El-Kosheh, but a subsequent government investigation cleared the police of any wrongdoing in the case. The harsh treatment was an apparent attempt to pin the crime on a Christian, thus avoiding Muslim reprisals. The prosecution’s only alleged eyewitnesses to the murders, both young army Coptic army conscripts interrogated during the investigation, testified that they had been forced under torture to sign prepared statements incriminating Arsal. Two cases of violence between Christians and Muslims in El-Kosheh have been reported since the murders; in the latest outbreak, 21 Christians were killed, 260 houses and business were gutted and looted over a three-day period. mbherald.com