In its latest annual survey of religious freedom, the US State Department highlights the kidnapping and extortion of Christians in Egypt. Church leaders say this is on the increase and according Pope Tawadros, head of the Coptic church, it is among the most significant problems faced by Egypt's Christian minority who are thought to number around eight million. Police often appear complicit or reluctant to take action and this, the report says, has "fostered a climate of impunity". 

Although Muslims are also victims of such crimes, Christians have been disproportionately targeted in Upper Egypt and, to a lesser degree, in Cairo and the north, the State Department says. "According to media reports, interviews with Coptic victims’ attorneys and Coptic clergy, Christians in the Minya, Qena, Assiut, and North Sinai Governorates were specifically targeted for kidnappings for ransom."

Regarding developments in Egypt during 2014 – the year covered by its report issued this week – the State Department says:

"Three kidnappings took place in June in North Sinai. The family of one of the victims, businessman Gamal Shenouda, paid EGP 300,000 ($41,958) in ransom to the kidnappers, according to a local civil society organisation. 

"In Naga Hammadi, Qena [province], the captors of Malak Zaghloul, a merchant, returned him on July 7, five days after he was kidnapped, after his family paid a ransom of an undisclosed amount. In comments to the press in July, a Coptic Orthodox religious leader complained of the frequency of kidnappings in Naga Hammadi and blamed security agencies for their inability to protect Copts. He stated that the number of abduction cases exceeded 70 in the city in the past three years."

According to Egyptian government statistics published last year, the total number of Christians kidnapped since 2011 was 140, 96 of whom returned.

In March last year, a local human rights organisation documented eight cases of extortion and 12 cases of robbery and kidnapping targeting Copts in Shamia village, from which the perpetrators obtained more than EGP 1.5 million ($210,000) in ransom payments during the period September 2013 to January 2014. 

The State Department adds:

"Human rights activists and Christian leaders stated police and security forces often failed to respond to the kidnapping and extortion of Christians in Upper Egypt, including targeting of landowners. They said that in some areas of Upper Egypt perpetrators forced Christians to pay 'protection money'. Police reportedly told families of Christian kidnap victims to 'pay the ransom and keep quiet'. One Christian leader said that the extortions were divesting Christians of their wealth and dignity.

"In September [2014] attackers reportedly shot and killed a Coptic dentist in Assuit for refusing to pay protection money. In comments to the press, his family said thugs had been threatening to kill him for over a year if he did not pay protection money. They also said he filed several complaints against the individuals, but the police were unresponsive. There were reports of increasing land thefts from Christians, especially in Upper Egypt."

In another case (not mentioned in the State Department report) Wadie Ramses, an orthopaedic physician, was abducted from the clinic that he owned in el-Arish, 200 miles northeast of Cairo. He was held for three months and eventually released on payment of a $200,000 ransom. He was also forced to abandon his clinic and lost his income from a local military hospital where he acted as a consultant.
  

Wadie Ramses: $200,000 ransom. 
Photo: Inés San Martín/Crux
  

Ramses's account of conversations with his captors leaves little doubt that he had been targeted as a Christian.

Ramses was also highly critical of the police and claimed that some of those who beat him while in captivity were members of the security forces. According to the Catholic website, Crux:

He insisted that if the police genuinely wanted to liberate him, they had every opportunity to do so. Every eight to ten days, he said, he was driven to see the “big boss,” at which time he’d speak on the phone with his son to discuss ransom arrangements. It was always the same number, he said, and often these calls would last for two hours.

“My son was able to track down the place, because I always called from the same location and the same phone,” Ramses said. “The police had at least 13 opportunities to rescue me, so how is it they never found the place?”

     
Posted by Brian Whitaker
Friday, 16 October 2015