On the other hand, security agencies arrested on Friday (Jan. 27) the perpetrators of the Naja' Hammādī crime, in which five persons killed Copt Mu'awad As'ad, a cement trader, and his son As'ad.

The prime suspect is 'Ādil Muhammad Jamāl, an upholsterer, who was aided and abetted by four others from the village of Abū Hizām.

A security source told al-Ahrām that the crime mainly targeted the kidnapping of As'ad's son and later asking for a ransom of LE500,000 (roughly $90,000) in return for his release but things turned bloody when the father resisted them.

ùHundreds of Muslims and Copts in Naja' Hammādī gathered in front of the Virgin Mary Church to attend the funeral of the two victims before they were laid to their final rest. [Usāmah al-Hawwārī, al-Ahrām, Jan. 28, p. 20]