Renewed Egyptian Police Harassment against a Mother and her Twins

Renewed Egyptian Police Harassment against a Mother and her Twins

By | 2008-12-25T23:40:00-04:00 December 25th, 2008|News|0 Comments

Once again the Egyptian police violate its own duty of protecting Egyptian citizens; it joins in a reprisal campaign against a Coptic mother who refused to convert to Islam with her teenage twin boys, following her husband’s conversion. This incident happened on December 21st, when five men in civilian clothes, identifying themselves as police officers, knocked on the door of Mrs. Camellia Lutfi, mother of the teenage twins Mario and Andrew, asking her to escort them to the police station to implement a court order against her. She informed them that the case was already implemented by court, and that she has appealed against it and the case is still pending in court.She showed him documents proving what she said. The policeman replied that they do not care about what is pending in court, and if she was not willing to escort them on her own accord, they would carry her by force. She became suspicious due the policeman’s insistence, and in view of his inability to produce any official papers. When the policeman ordered her to get dressed and escort them in a van waiting outside the building, she asked him to wait outside the apartment in order to get dressed without the presence of a stranger.  Meanwhile, her older son who was informed about those visitors arrived and started to video tape the scene with his mobile phone. The policemen attacked him, took the phone, erased what was taped and confiscated it. When her lawyer arrived, he informed them that all documents were in court and they could not force his client to escort them. However, he offered to follow them to the police station. The dilemma of this woman started when her former husband left her in 1999, converted to Islam to remarry a Muslim women, and then went on to marry a second and a third (since Islam allows four wives at a time).  At that time Camellia requested and obtained her civil and Church divorce.Once Camellia obtained her divorce from Church, her former husband started a war against her. He used the corrupt legal system of the Arab regime, ruling in Egypt, which always sides with the Muslin convert party against the Christian one.  He opened Hell’s doors on her and their children. He wants to convert the twin boys against their will to Islam. Furthermore, he tried to use Islamic law to force her conversion too.Camellia has fought with her ex-husband over alimony support and custody of their twin sons in 30 different cases since their separation. At the end of September, the court showed bias in favor of the father because he converted to Islam and granted him full custody of the 13-year-old Christian twins contrary to Egypt’s civic code which calls for children under the age of 15 to stay with their mother, regardless of their religion. The court ruling was not even based on sharia but was purely arbitrary. Andrew’s and Mario’s story caught the attention of the media when, they declared publicly that they are Christians and will defy any ruling to change that. During a school test in the mandatory Islamic religion in May 2007-students have to pass Religion exams to be promoted to a higher class- the twins answered none of the questions. On his blank answer sheet Andrew wrote “I am Christian” and Mario wrote: “My religion is Christianity”.  They failed the exam and had to re-take it, but again insisted on writing these single phrases. Voice of the Copts calls on all human rights organizations to join in supporting this mother who is being penalized because she dared raise her voice against the religious intolerance and injustice adopted by the Egyptian Nazi regime against the basic human rights of the Copts.