Some 94 persons convicted in al-Kashah incidents found not guilty, two sentenced

The criminal court of Suhaj city, Upper Egypt, sentenced only two persons out of scores who were accused in the sectarian confrontations in al-Kashah village in Suhaj governorate by the beginning of 2000.

The court punished Mayez Ameen Abdul Raheem to 15 years imprisonment with labor, while Fawzi Muhammad Shebeib was sentenced for three and a half years imprisonment. The two were convicted of deliberate killing and having unlicensed weapons The court found "not guilty" other 94 persons including 38 Copts, who were accused earlier.

The chairman of the court advisor Lutfi Suleiman had since one month postponed announcing the sentence in a 9,000 page case.

However, sectarian confrontation in al-Kashah resulted in 20 killings among the Christians and one Muslim before they were expanded to the neighboring Dar al-Salaam village.

The first court released in February 2000 sentences ranged between one to 12 years with hard labor against four persons and found other 92 not guilty. This, however, raised the anger of some who considered these sentences as unfair.

In July 2001, the court of cassation ordered retrial of the convicted persons and therefore the second trial started in November 2001.