Egyptian to hang for killing Christian

CAIRO: An Egyptian court sentenced a Muslim man to death on Thursday for murdering a Christian for selling alcohol, security and judicial officials said.

The court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria issued its sentence after receiving approval from the mufti, the official interpreter of Islamic law whose role is advisory. The verdict can be appealed. Adel Abu Al-Nur El-Sayed, 50, was accused of killing 61-year-old Youssef Lamei, a Coptic Christian, on Jan. 2 in Alexandria.

El-Sayed had walked up to Lamei as he sat outside his liquor store and slit his throat, the victim’s son Tony Youssef, who witnessed the murder, told AFP.

El-Sayed, who sports a long beard, later told the court that he would kill all alcohol sellers if he could, judicial sources said.

Consumption of alcohol is forbidden in Islam.

El-Sayed was present in court on Thursday, according to a security official.

The Coptic minority has been on edge after a series of attacks.

Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany have found a massive 8-metre statue submerged in ground water in a Cairo slum that they say probably depicts Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.

The discovery, hailed by the Antiquities Ministry as one of the most important ever, was made near the ruins of Ramses II’s temple in the ancient city of Heliopolis, located in the eastern part of modern-day Cairo.

“Last Tuesday they called me to announce the big discovery of a colossus of a king, most probably Ramses II, made out of quartzite,” Antiquities Minister Khaled Al-Anani said on Thursday at the site of the statue’s unveiling.