A Muslim radical who brutally murdered a Coptic Christian priest on the streets of Cairo in Egypt last year was sentenced to death by hanging on Monday by the Cairo Criminal Court.
According to Gulf News, Egypt’s top Islamic official, the Grand Mufti, approved the sentence for Ahmad Saeed, the militant who in October 2017 fatally stabbed Samaan Shehata with a long knife, leaving him to bleed to death.
Saeed injured another Coptic clergyman who was with Shehata in the same incident, but he survived.
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Saeed’s verdict can be appealed, however, as reported by The Associated Press.
The murder of Shehata in Cairo’s northeastern suburb of El–Marg was captured on video and posted online, which also showed citizens attempting to aid the wounded priest, but it was too late.
Christian leaders strongly condemned the killing.
Believers have been demanding justice and better protection from the government, with church shootings and bombings taking hundreds of Christian lives in the past several years.
Many of the attacks have been organized or inspired by the Islamic State terror group, which has been trying to spread its influence in Egypt.
