Human Rights Group Denounces Attack on Libyan Christian Church Near Misrata

Libyans look at the destroyed side room of the Coptic church on December 31, 2012, damaged following an explosion at night in the Mediterranean town of Dafinya, just west of Misrata in which two Egyptians were killed., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (Cairo)

Libya - ANHRI Denounces the Attack On the Egyptian Church in Misratah

2 January 2013
press release

ANHRI denounces the attack on an Egyptian church building in Misratah in Libya, causing the death of two and wounding three others from the Egyptian Christian church staff who reside in Libya.

In the frame of the security chaos that taking place in Libya in particularly as the security problems that face the military and police institutions and the failure of the purification and restructuring operations, the church of Mar Girgis in Dafniya a town near Misrata Libya on Saturday December 29, 2012 by an armed men. The attack resulted in the death of one and injuries of three others, all of them were from the Egyptian staff in the church. Later of the injured died from his injuries and followed by another, the number of the deaths reach three.

The attack took place after the end of the prayers rituals and after they left the building of the church according to a Libyan official. He said that the explosion targeted the most crowded place by worshipers, but by the time of the explosion, the worshipers had left building to another.

It is worthy to mention that the Christians in Libya are 3% of the residents and most of them are Egyptians.

It worthy to be noted that this is attack, not the first of its kind, as the red-cross committee had decided to stop its aid work in Misratah due to attacking its headquarter. Libya had witnessed several attacks waged by extremists on a Sufi-Shiekh Shrine in addition to the attack on the US consulate in Libya and resulted in the death of Chris Stevens, the American ambassador in Libya.

ANHRI said that "the attack on church, whether Egyptian or not, is a serious violation to the freedom of worship and belief and a destruction to the diversity structure of the society. It portends a serious deterioration on respecting the human rights and basic freedoms levels". ANHRI added that "the authorities should bare the responsibility of these repeated violations on the religious sanctities and do its best efforts to provide an appropriate climate to the citizens and the residents to practice their different religious rites".

ANHRI valued the sought of the authorities in conducting investigations of these incidents through as a member of the security committee in Masratah headed to the incident place but ANHRI hopes that the charges should be falsely pressed on anyone, in an attempt to close the file.