Cairo: Body of a Priest Found with 22 Knife Wounds

Not only unprotected, but also actively persecuted by the military: Coptic Christians in Egypt -- Soldiers shoot monks and priests.

Dusseldorf-Cairo (kath.net/KAP)  Further attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt: The Coptic Orthodox Bishop for Germany, Anba Damian, complained this Thursday to the 'Westphalian Hoxter' of attacks by soldiers against the Anba--Bishoy-Cloister in Wadi El Natrun.  There this Wednesday a monk was shot and another was abducted. Some collaborators with the Monastery have been severely wounded, said the Bishop.

Still more, this Tuesday the body of a Coptic Priest was found with 22 knife wounds.

The "Society for Threatened People" also participated this Thursday, saying that more than a thousand Copts had demonstrated against new attacks against Monasteries.  The participants protested against the destruction of the protective fences around the Monastery by the Army, at which more Copts were severely injured.

The protests were directed otherwise against the murder of David Boutros.  The body of the priest was found on Tuesday in this home in the village of Schatb near the city of Asyut.

Boutros was, according to reports in the interim, already murdered at some time this weekend with 22 knife wounds in the neck, back and stomach.

Damian accused the Egyptian Army of not protecting the Monastery from plundering and even hindering the efforts of the Monks in defending themselves. "The unarmed Monks and workers of my home Monastery Anba-Bishoy in Wadi El Natrun were fired upon with much hate and still more anger,"  declared Damian.

According to the testimony of the Bishop the Army stopped the Monks from building a defensive wall around the Monastery, as the security forces withdrew and while a thousand prisoners were released from the jails in Wadi El Natrun.  On Wednesday the Army returned with four bulldozers and destroyed the wall again.  Just as this was happening, the soldiers fired on the Monastery with machine pistols.

Link to kath.net...

And yet there's not much "danger" to these  uprisings says Vatican "expert".