Egyptian court acquits two Christian activists

Nov 4, 2007, 16:48 GMT

Cairo - An Egyptian state security court has acquitted two Christian human rights activists detained on charges of defaming Islam, a judicial source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Sunday.

Adel Fawzy Faltas and Peter Ezzat had been held since August 8. Despite the acquittal, it was not immediately clear whether they had yet been released from jail.

Faltas and Ezzat, members of the Canada-based Middle East Christians Association (MECA), were accused by Egypt's state security prosecutors of threatening social peace by propagating anti-Islamic material.

The material in question was a book entitled The Persecuted that the association compiled from Egyptian newspaper reports and court cases which involve perceived persecution of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

Initially, they were also accused of converting a Muslim, named as Mohamed Ahmed Hegazy, to Christianity, but this charge was later dropped owing to lack of evidence.

Proselytizing to promote the Islamic faith is taken for granted in Egypt, though not enshrined in law. However, promoting any other religion is considered unacceptable. Conversions to other religions are not banned by law.

Egypt's Christians estimate their number at about 15 million, out of a population of 79 million. A census conducted last year did not include any detail of their percentage of the population.

Groups of Egyptian Christians living abroad, especially in North America and Europe, have been campaigning for equal rights and an end to discrimination against Christians in Egypt.