Court Hands Death Sentence to Murderer of Alexandria Priest

On Saturday, the Alexandria Criminal Court sentenced  a 60-year-old man to death for murdering Coptic Orthodox priest Arsanios Wadid last month in the Egyptian coastal city.

The court had heard in the last session the pleading of the Public Prosecution, which demanded the imposition of the maximum penalty on the defendant, while plaintiffs demanded the civil right to retribution.

The Egyptian Public Prosecution referred the suspect to the criminal court on April 20. The Public Prosecution established evidence against the suspect from the testimony of 17 witnesses.

The 56-year-old victim — a priest at the Church of the Virgin Mary and Mar Boulos — was stabbed to death on the evening of 7 April as he was walking along the Mediterranean corniche in Alexandria’s Sidi Bishr District.

The assailant was apprehended hours later and confessed to the crime.

The defendant later adjusted his confession, claiming that the knife found in his possession was just for self-defence and that he was not aware of what he was doing on the day of the incident, according to the prosecution.