U.S. Copts Association

By  Said Nafea   

Al-Masry Al-Youm obtained a copy of the investigations launched by South Menya Prosecution into the Abu-Fana Monastery incidents.

The investigations, which were carried out by chief prosecutor Ayman Mamdouh, said the chief prosecutor received a phone call on May 31 from Yunis Hassan, head of Mallawi Police Station prosecution, about the gunshots at Abu-Fana Monastery, west of the city of Abu-Fana.

The injured were taken to Menya University Hospital. Maj. Ahmed Aref Mohamed, chief of the hospital’s security, said they were four.

Head of the Surgery Department at the hospital, Hamdi Abu-Beya, said the hospital received Raafat Zakaria Ayyub, nicknamed Michael Afafini and Munir Labib, nicknamed Sawiris. The first’s right arm was shot and the second has fractures in his right arm and left knee.

The two were taken to the operating room to undergo necessary surgical operations. Then two others were admitted to the hospital, Gerges Sami Nashed, nicknamed Abu-Fanini Afanini and Emad Eid Habib, nicknamed Bakhoum Abafini. The two were also injured by gunshots. The clinical examination showed that their injuries were slight and they could be interrogated.

Bakhoum Abafini said in the investigations that his name is Emad Eid Habib, 31, and resides in the monastery. The prosecution asked him to take the oath. He said the monastery’s code prevented him from taking the oath.

He added, “I was accompanying Father Shenuda - official name is Milad Atteya - in the farmland attached to the monastery and we heard gunshots. We rushed towards the direction of the sound on a tractor. Father Shenouda phoned one of the fathers to know what is happening.

When we arrived, we were taken aback when 20 masked persons surrounded us and beat us with the butts of their guns. I was shot by a masked man. They then set the tractor ablaze. They went on beating me till I fell down. They had a drill and they took it and entered the monastery. They set our cells, the room of the irrigation engine and the church on fire. Then I was transferred to the hospital.”

32-year-old monk Afanini - his name is Gerges Sami Nashed - said, after refusing to the take the oath for the same reason, “I was in the monastery and was taken aback to see two armed persons in loose garment.

They beat me with their guns and left me on the ground. I walked to Father Anthonius’s farmland and there I met Afwan Ghebrial and Aghabius. We went to a high place at the center of the farmland and looked at the place where the fire was.

We found five unmasked armed persons. I knew four of them, namely Samir Abu-Loli, Shawaf, Abdel-Qader and his son Atef. When they saw us, we went to Father Beshoy’s farmland and hid there till Father Sawiris and Michael came.

Then we went to Father Anthonius’s farmland and we carried Father Michael to the monks’ cells in Father Antonius’s farmland. We found a pickup, which took us to the hospital.”
Priest Sawiris - official name is Munir Labib Ibrahim, 27 - who is a monk in the monastery, said, “I was in an area called Haram el-Athar inside the monastery. I was transporting stone bricks on the tractor. I heard the sound of gunshots from Pope Kirlis’s farmland.

I rushed to the direction of the sound and I found a large number of armed people shooting those in the monastery. I ran away to Antonius’s farmland and met fathers Fini Afafini, Ghebrial, Aghabius and Michael. We had a tractor. We ascended the high place and saw seven unmasked armed men.

When they saw us, they opened fire at us and Michael was injured with two bullets in his arm. I took him on the tractor and rapidly drove, but they shot at the tractor and forced me to stop it. They told me ‘you will die’. But they left me. I lost consciousness and when I came round I found Ghebrial, Aghabius and Michael in a pickup and we went to the hospital.”

The prosecution moved to the  scene of the crime and met with priest Morcos Afafini, who expressed his willingness to move with a private tractor in the monastery to Pope Kirlis’s farm. On June 1st, 41-year-old farmer Ibrahim Fawzi Abdo lodged a complaint, accusing head of Mallawi Police Station’s Investigations of arresting his brother Refaat without any right. He said his brother was working with priest Antonius in building the wall.

Rawayeh Abdel-Salam Farag, a 52-year-old local in Arab Qasr Hor village, said she heard the sound of gunshots while she was at her house. Then she heard cries and someone told her that her son Khalil Ibrahim had been shot and taken to hospital. She went to the village police station and she and her son’s wife gave their testimonies and then returned to home.

Tomorrow: testimonies of defendants from Arab Qasr Hor village in the incidents of Abu Fana, as well as the criminal investigation report.