Reuters – Coptic Orthodox youth chant anti-government slogans at a demonstration in the main cathedral in Cairo this photograph from 2010.
Four Coptic Christian teenagers who were released after being sentenced to five years in prison for contempt of Islam have fled to Switzerland to seek asylum.
The four boys’ lawyer Ehab Ramzy told Egypt’s Daily News that the four teenagers left Cairo for Turkey where they were allowed to stay five months ago. They then sought a humanitarian visa to Switzerland.
Ramzy said it was quite understandable that they were seeking sanctuary in Switzerland: “Anyone who felt he or she was in danger due to the influence of extremist ideas inside governmental institutions would do the same as these Coptic boys.”
There was no travel ban on the teenagers and they were able to leave Egypt legally.
Ramzy defended their original actions: “They were expressing their views and opinions, not insulting a religion. Many figures have fled Egypt in the past two years, such as celebrated writer Fatma Naaot.”
Three of the teenagers were sentenced to five years in prison each for contempt of Islam after they were seen laughing and mocking Muslim prayers in a 30 second video recorded on a mobile phone. The judge in the central Egyptian province of Minya sent the fourth defendant, who at the time was aged 15, to a juvenile detention centre.
At the time, Iman Girgis, a mother of one of the convicted students, Moller Atef, aged 15, told Associated Press: “My son was sentenced to five years for laughing. Is that possible? What kind of justice is this?”
Egypt, where 10 million of the 87.3 million population are Christian, is number 22 on the Open Doors World Watch persecution list. There is a small but growing community of Christian converts from Islam who bear the brunt of persecution, most often from family members, according to Open Doors.
