Murderer of Alexandria priest sentenced to death

An Egyptian criminal court on Saturday sentenced to death by hanging the accused of the murder of Father Arsanios Wadeed Rizkallah, priest of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Karmouz.

Last month, the Alexandria Criminal Court asked the country's top mufti, the highest religious authority for Islam, to rule on the case of the defendant accused of stabbing the Coptic Christian priest to death .

Grand Mufi Shawky Allam's decision on whether the suspect should be sentenced to death and executed is a non-binding opinion, but it significantly influences the court's decision.

In previous hearings, the court examined videos from surveillance cameras that monitored the accused during his attack on the victim on the evening of April 7 while he was walking along the Mediterranean coast in the Sidi Bishr district in Alexandria.

The priest's killing sparked widespread discontent in Egypt as security and judicial authorities opened an investigation.

The Coptic Orthodox Church said the victim was attacked with a sharp object in the neck.

Several Islamic institutions, including Egypt's Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayyeb, offered their condolences to the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros, and to Christians over the murder of Arsanios Wadid.

At first, the accused confessed to attacking Arsonios, but he later claimed that he was not conscious at the time of committing the crime and that he suffered from mental disorders ten years ago which affected his actions .

Egyptian Attorney General Hamada el Sawy ordered the incarceration of the accused pending investigation, as well as his placement under medical observation in a public hospital specializing in mental illnesses.

But after listening to the testimony of nearly 17 eyewitnesses of the incident and receiving reports from the Forensic Authority and the Alexandria Poison Control Center regarding the anatomical characterization of the victim's body, the Egyptian prosecutor ordered the referral of the accused to the criminal court for trial.