Egypt: Who killed Mayada Ashraf?

Egyptian military-controlled media have been trying to cover up the reality of the murder of the young female journalist, Mayada Ashraf, who was shot dead with a live bullet fired at her by a police sniper on Friday while she was covering an anti-coup protest.

Egyptian military-run media are claiming that Mayada got shot by pro-Morsi protesters. All available evidence, however, point to the fact that Mayada was killed by police snipers, who also killed three other protesters in the same incident.

On Saturday, the Al-Marg Prosecution issued an arrest warrant against an injured protester, accusing him of killing Mayada. Based on verified evidence, the accusation seems trumped-up, and is probably an attempt to exonerate the police officer who killed Mayada.

The following links show the truth about Mayada’s death, based on raw footage and testimony of her friends who witnessed the incident:

1. The moment Mayada was shot dead. Protesters are trying to save her life
2. Mayada’s friend and eyewitness to the murder says she was killed by police
3. A journalist who accompanied Mayada confirms she was shot dead by a police sniper
4. The pro-coup Chairman of the Journalists Syndicate, Diaa Rashwan, is expelled by journalists and Mayada’s friends as he tries to deliver condolences
5. Mina Nader, a Coptic Christian journalist and eyewitness to the incident, tweeted the following: “Mayada Asraf, a journalist at Dostour newspaper, was killed by a live bullet in the head. My testimony as an eyewitness is that I did not see any weapons with the Muslim Brotherhood protesters. Police was firing [live bullets] insanely.”

Mayada Ashraf is a 22-years-old graduate of the Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University. According to her Facebook page, Mayada Ashraf was a principled journalist. Although she had been an opponent of Morsi, and a supporter of June 30 protests, her Facebook statuses show that she rejected Al-Sisi’s presidential candidacy, and the massacres committed against Morsi supporters. In one of her latest Facebook posts, she said: “Although I am not surprised that Al-Sisi is running for president, I don’t know why I felt disheartened after his presidency bid announcement.” Following the August 14 massacre against Morsi supporters in Rabaa Al-Adaweya, Mayada wrote: “Morsi is not worth dying for, but also Al-Sisi is not worth renouncing our humanity for.” In a Facebook conversation published by rights activist Haitham Abu Khalil, Mayada tells her friend that she “hates Al-Sisi since the Rabaa massacre”.