Remains of beheaded Copts to return to Egypt Monday: Libya

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Sun, 13 May 2018 - 10:21 GMT

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Sun, 13 May 2018 - 10:21 GMT

Men in orange jumpsuits, identified to be Egyptian Christians, held captive by the Islamic State (IS) are marched by armed men along a beach said to be near Tripoli, in this still image from an undated video made available on social media on February 15,

Men in orange jumpsuits, identified to be Egyptian Christians, held captive by the Islamic State (IS) are marched by armed men along a beach said to be near Tripoli, in this still image from an undated video made available on social media on February 15,

CAIRO – 14 May 2018: Member of the Department of Criminal Investigation in Misurata, northwestern Libya, affirmed that remains of the 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were beheaded by the Islamic State (IS) in Libya in 2015 will be transferred to Egypt on Monday.


Mahmoud told Egypt Today that the Libyan Ministry of Interior, Public Attorney’s office, and a number of security officials in Misurata will be supervising the process.


In 2015, IS published a video dubbed “A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross,” where a number of masked IS members appeared beheading the unarmed victims.


On May 6, Siddiq Assour, head of investigations at the Libyan Attorney General's Office, said that he ordered that the remains to be transferred to Egypt.


The decisions were taken upon request from Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Sadek, as Libyan Attorney General Abdul Qader Juma Radwan on Mar. 14 agreed to return the remains.


Assour said in March that the Libyan authorities coordinated with Egypt to send the bodies of the victims following DNA tests.


Forensic samples were taken from the bodies of the beheaded victims and were sent to Egypt to be identified by their families.


Concerning the defendants of the case, who were arrested in September 2017, Assour said that investigations were completed, and the defendants would appear before the court after Ramadan.


On September 29, 2017, Assour said in a press conference that the bodies of the Egyptian Copts who were slaughtered behind the Mahari Hotel had been identified in Sirte and that the AG’s Office had all the information about those responsible for the slaughter, adding that one of the IS members who had witnessed the incident supplied all the information.



Additional reporting by Ahmed Gomaa

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