A number of Egyptian Copts returning from Libya after being detained for alleged Christian proselytizing, have requested pressing charges against the Libyan government and demanded compensation for the physical and moral insults to their religion while detained in Libyan prison. Lūqā Yūnān, 27, says that before being arrested, they had heard of a street gang that wanted the Egyptian Christians detained for proselytizing, whose leader attacked the Copts in an area of Benghazi called Sūq al-Zalām (Author’s Note: the dark market is an old market in Benghazi city in the middle of al-Hadādah Square), and that gunshots were fired at them from local slums to make them leave the area. Lūqā claims they were tortured in various ways, such as soaking them in cold water, even though it was winter, and beating their crucifixes with sticks and wires. Michael Andalus, another returnee from Libyan prison, criticizes the comments of the Libyan ambassador after his first meeting with Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II as “pretty phrases to calm the situation but no clear was to resolve the crisis” (Mājī Jamāl, al-Sabāh, Mar. 19, p. 2). Read original text in Arabic.
