Copts denied permit to commemorate Maspero massacre

The Ministry of Interior in Egypt has denied Coptic activists a permit to protest in front of the state television building Maspero on the five-year anniversary of the Maspero massacre on Sunday.

Eight months after Mubarak stood down in 2011 protesters marched to the Maspero building to demonstrate against the army’s handling of the destruction of a church in Upper Egypt. Army tanks drove into the crowd and soldiers began to fire. Twenty-eight Egyptians and one soldier were killed that day.

Today, Coptic activists of the Maspero Youth Union were denied the right to commemorate this massacre under the controversial Protest Law, legislation which has placed broad restrictions on demonstrations in Egypt. It threatens citizens’ rights to freedom of assembly and authorises security forces to use excessive force against protesters.

As well as rejecting the Protest Law, the union has demanded that army officials involved in the massacre be tried. Similar to other Mubarak-era officials, those responsible are yet to be held to account.