Naja' Hammādī has witnessed a new kidnapping of two high school students – Jirjis Rizq and Mīnā Nash'at – while they were on their way to the Anbā Badābā Monastery using motorbikes, five kilometers away from the town.
Running out of gas, Rizq and Nash'at phoned their friends get them some gas but the friends neither could find them nor could reach them on their cell phones because they were switched off.
A little while later the two young Copts' families received phone calls from unidentified persons asking for the sum of LE600,000 (roughly $100,000) in ransom for their release.
The families refused the requests on the grounds that they were not in possession of any lands or real estate and asked for reducing the ransom money but the kidnappers threatened to kill the two students if they did not receive the sum they named.
The two young Copts' friends later published the news on their Facebook pages and called for organizing a peaceful demonstration outside the police station. Nearly 400 citizens gathered in front of the station, where senior police officials demanded the protesters' departure and giving the police a chance to search for the culprits.
Archbishop Kyrillos of Naja' Hammādī said this is the 11th case of abduction of Copts in the town and its villages in just a matter of five months.
"Fear haunting Copts and the threats they receive push them to avoid reporting the authorities, which makes it easier for thugs who exploit the state of lawlessness," said Archbishop Kyrillos.
He added that he received threats that there will be copycat Eastern Coptic Christmas attacks in the fashion of those that took place on the eve of January 6. [Mīnā Mihannā, Al-Ahālī, Dec. 28, p. 1] Read the original text in Arabic
- Article has no online link.
