Investigative report: Extreme security measures do not imply Christian persecution in Egypt
Egypt, Culture, 10/3/1998

El-Kosh'h is a small town of 24,000 Christians, and 16,000 Muslims among 40,000 inhabitants in which Bishop Wissa of El-Balyanna in the governorate of Sohag, 500 km south of Cairo reported on September 10 that at least 1,000 Christians in the village of El-Kosh'h were arrested and interrogated by local police, following an incident on August 14 in which two Christians, Samir Aweida Hakim, 25, and Karam Tamir Arsel, 27, were murdered.

80 percent of the people arrested, interrogated and released after a few days in El-Kosh'h were Christians, yet people were not complaining about this percentage. They complained to their priests and Bishop Wissa about the way the police operate in Egypt, using harsh and brutal methods of interrogation during their investigations to force confessions.

The El-Kosh'h incident is not a matter of who was interrogated about the murders, but of the police's extra brutal and harsh practices and the way they offend the Christian faith during interrogations, which greatly upset the people.

Hearing about the harsh interrogation methods being used by El-Kosh'h police, Bishop Wissa reported it to the police in El-Belyana then to the head of the security department in Sohag. and despite promises that the matter would be examined, the arrests and torture continued. During an interview Bishop Wissa was visibly angry, asking "How could they have done this? Why were these interrogation methods used for Christians and not for the Muslims who were interrogated in this case?."

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) reported that the Bishop Wissa could have acted earlier to complain about the torture and General Mahlouf's lack of initiative to the prosecutor.

On September 10, Bishop Wissa sent his assistant Father Bola to present a handwritten document to Maurice Sadek (from the Center for Human Rights) that explains the experiences in Sohag, then Father Bola informed Bishop Wissa about the possibility of meeting with high-ranking Egyptians, so Bishop Wissa sent two of his fellow priests, Father Gabriel and Father Luca, from el-Kosh'h to the capital Cairo. ArabicNews.com met with Father Gabriel and Father Luca while in Cairo. Both priests headed on September 13 to Brigadier General Abdul-Menem Ma'awed, the head of the office of Interior Minister Habib El-Adli, who promised to investigate immediately.

The same note carried by the two priests went to the Governor of Sohag and to anyone who inquired about the situation in Sohag.

Several phone calls were made to villages near El-Khash' on September 11 and 12. The reports of the interrogations that took place in el-Kosh'h were widespread not only in Cairo but also among the general public in surrounding villages. The Egyptian media were not yet aware of this issue, and after the note of Bishop Wissa was distributed, publications of the note in Egypt followed.

Sadek (from the Center for Human Rights) obtained the note, using it to inform the press. Coptic and human rights organizations outside Egypt launched a media campaign to claim that Christians were arrested and interrogated by security forces for "religious reasons."

No one in Belyanna or El-Kosh'h speculated about the possibility that the two Christians were murdered by Islamic groups, yet it was only the Freedom House, a group that "falsely" attributed the remarks of murder to father Gabriel who never made such statements, only saying that judgment should be made after an investigation is done.

Bishop Wissa explained that "What we have experienced has nothing to do with Muslim - Christian relations. We have always had good relations in this area. We have not suffered from extremists or terrorists. Beside the people in el-Kosh'h, both Muslims and Christians, are not very religious. Both communities are poor and they are first of all concerned with making a living."

Then Bishop Wissa began to narrate what happened, saying: "My complaints concern police behavior only, most of which was directed against Christians," explaining that Samir Aweida Hakim and Karam Tamir Arsel were known to be bad people. Bishop Wissa added, "They were part of a group of a young, unemployed men who were drinking alcohol made from dates, using drugs and gambling. We suspected members of an el-Kosh'h family of this murder because they had accused Samir and Karam of being responsible for the death of one of their family members." Although his death was of natural causes, Bishop Wissa said, before the murder they accused the two of killing him with poison. Today they say they are convinced he was killed for revenge. I think this is the truth."

Bishop Wissa denied that fearing from a conflict between Muslims and Christians, the police of el-Kosh'h immediately suspected Boktor Abdul-Yamin Mikael, who was said to be an illegal arms trader, as weapons were found in his house. Moreover, his daughter Haneya, 14, was suspected of sexual relations with one of men who was killed, although Henaya denied that she knew either of the two killed men.

In this context, the police claimed that Haneya was engaged to Zakeria Botros Brasha, 27, and so Zakeria was also involved in the murder, but both Haneya and Zakeria denied they knew each other.

Then Haneya said her brother Romani, 11, was hung on a ventilator, but her brother denied that this happened, saying he was blindfolded and pushed on the ground, then he felt electric shocks and heard insults. This conflict in testimony, obviously, made suspect the reliability of their statements.

On September 16, the police released Mikael and his two sons, trying him only for possessing illegal arms and not for murder.

The brutal way the police treated people has spread widely, and more than 20 people related their deep wounds from the harsh methods of interrogation used in the investigation in el-Kosh'h. Others claimed that police officers extorted amounts of money varying from $7 to $30 for the promise that they would not be interrogated.

The Egyptian police are criticized in Egypt for their rough interrogation methods toward "both" Muslims and Christians. In the town of Bilqas, a young Muslim died from harsh methods used by the police. There are plenty of Muslims who would testify to this, but this time the victims were mostly Christians.

A week later, the EOHR investigated the claims in el-Kosh'h, says Mohamed El-Ghamri, and executive officer with EOHR. The organization of the police in el-Kosh'h, as in other Upper Egyptian small towns, is very weak. Police officers normally sit behind their desks at the station and do not venture into the streets. They work with police informants in the small towns who go out in the streets and inform the officers about what they see. The system gives the informant the opportunity to misuse their position. They can give their officer wrong information about their personal foes. They ask people for money in exchange for not arresting them. No written orders to arrest people exist. No systematic registration of interrogation in the police office in el-Kosh'h exist, and thus officers thought they could get away with excessive behavior.

One farmer said he had been tortured at the prosecutor's office, when immediately Father Gabriel intervened saying "Thus far none of the people had gone to the prosecutor." Bishop Wissa said, "The man must not have know the difference between the police and the prosecutor."

Moreover, a guard in small town, know as Nasr Awad Abel Nur, 39, said he was arrested because his son who is 15 years old is a friend of Karam, one of the two murder victims. Nur said he is convinced that at least 1,000 people were interrogated, expressing his readiness to provide a list of all the names of people who were interrogated by the police. However the EOHR believes that about 500 people is the correct figure.

Dr. Rifa'at Sa'id, secretary-general of the leftist Tagammu party, commented that a member of his party in Sohag investigated the complaints, "and I am convinced the police committed very serious mistakes. I am equally convinced Christians are doing their case a disservice by exaggerating. It gives local authorities an excuse not to look into claims of abuse."

The local police tried to hide their disgraceful behavior while the governor and minister of interior did not.

Bishop Wissa reported that General Abdul-Wahab Abu Zied, assistant to the minister of interior for Upper Egypt from Asyut to Aswan, went on September 16 to Sohag and el-Kosh'h. "He agreed that several people had been mistreated during interrogation and offered an apology for what happened," says Bishop Wissa, who says the results are visible. "Interrogations in el-Kosh'h have stopped, and it is expected that those responsible will be punished. We have gone through a very difficult period, but I am pleased with the steps the Ministry of Interior has taken."

Many Christians and Egyptians were greatly enraged by the situation that developed in el-Kosh'h.

Youssef Sidhom, publisher of "Watani," the only Christian weekly in Egypt, wrote in his weekly column on September 27 that he was surprised when he heard that people presented the story of el-Kosh'h as a conflict between Muslims and Christians while it was a police affair.

Ramzy Zaklama, a member of the board of the Wafd Party who once was a board member of Maurice Sadek's Center for Human Rights said that because Coptic and other advocacy organizations in the US and elsewhere are again complaining about the persecution of Christians in Egypt, their statements fuel more tensions. "We can solve our problems in Egypt without outside interference," he said.

But Dr. Helmy Girgis head of the British Coptic Association said: "We do support solutions in Egypt. People in Egypt should understand how difficult it is for us to obtain good reliable information, and they should also understand that when we receive such a cry for help from our brothers in Egypt we have to act, not because we are against Egypt but on the contrary, we are concerned for Egypt."

Father Gabriel praised the role of the case's prosecutor, who is Muslim, describing him as being very fair.

On the other hand, an official security source told ArabicNews.com that the Ministry of Interior investigated the head of intelligence in el-Behyana (in which el-Kosh'h is located) and said that the investigations included Muslims as well as Christians.

The official added that the law treats Egyptian Christians and Moslems alike, and if it was proved in the investigation that the officer in charge exceeded the law, he will immediately be punished.

Editor's note: ArabicNews.com brings you this special investigative report about how rumors become facts, and facts become exaggerated, and about how police brutality that many suffer from become described as "religious persecution" because of lack of information, and how these problems are used, by well intentioned people that want to solve problems and not so-well intentioned people that will use these issues to harm the reputation of a whole people and a country. We bring this report as an example of how things can improve by finding out the facts, and how to deal with the real problem, and not the imagined one. Even the biggest cities in the most civilized nations suffer problems of police brutality. One does not want to minimize the problem, but we are not surprised that in such remote rural areas, abuse of power can take place. Education, community awareness and intolerance of such abuse by citizens, and more resources when possible (in places where a country's resources are very limited), should help alleviate such problems and bring more solutions.