The crisis at al-Khusūs, which left seven dead, is entering a new chapter. Ahmad 'Isá, Director of al-Khusūs Prosecution, continues to supervise counselor Hātim al-Zayyāt, the Attorney General for Prosecutions of North Banhā. His investigations into three Copts of the same family led to the arrest of two brothers of said family on the charges of participating in the incident.
In another development, a number of families of the accused, both Copts and Muslims, are protesting against their relatives' incarceration and are collecting signatures in support of their acquittal. In addition to charges of murder and attempted murder, they are facing charges of thuggery, use of violence, unlicensed possession of weapons, creation of public unrest, stirring up panic among the citizens, defamation of religion, and igniting a conflict. Their families are saying that they have no connection to the incident and that their arrest was arbitrary.
The investigations have revealed that individuals from the Iskandar family were behind the first incident where they fired bullets to those present in front of their homes, which led to the death of a Muslim man and injured two others. This is when the situation escalated.
The most prominent individual of those arrested is Shaykh A.M.M., who stood up in a mosque and called out that it is jihad because Christians are killing Muslims. He denies the charge of incitement of violence (‘Alā’ al-Najjār and Muhammad Ayūb, al-Tahrīr, Apr. 16, p. 7). Read original text in Arabic.
