Family of executed Copt forced to leave North Sinai

The family of an elderly Copt in Egypt who was executed in April by Daesh have been forced to leave North Sinai after receiving death threats.

Nabil Habashy, 62, was kidnapped in November last year and his family were asked for three million Egyptian pounds ($190,900) as a so-called jizya, a tax Muslim empires placed on non-Muslim residents, reports Mada Masr.

Five days later the ransom was raised to five million Egyptian pounds ($318,165) and the family were told Nabil would be beheaded if they did not deliver.

His “crime” was building the only church in Bir Al-Abd in North Sinai and that the Coptic Church “support and collaborate with the army” in the fight against Daesh, according to the group.

Nabil’s daughter Marina Habashy told Mada Masr that they tried to file reports with security agencies in Sinai but they were not interested.

Neither were media outlets, apart from Christian channels.

READ: Egypt only lets 24 wounded Palestinians from Gaza in out of 2,000 injured

Rights watchdog Amnesty International has criticised the Egyptian government for failing to protect Christians in North Sinai against kidnappings and assassinations.

Security forces asked the family to leave North Sinai in January and they went to Ismailia, leaving behind their homes and possessions at risk of looting.

Scores of Christians have fled North Sinai for Ismailia due to the violence there.

The family found out Nabil had been killed by firing squad after Daesh released a video of his execution on 18 April accompanied by a threat against Egypt’s Copts for what it said was support for the military.

In a message to “all crusaders in the world” the extremists said: “As you kill, you will be killed, and as you capture, you will be captured.”

They warned Egypt’s Copts that supporting the military “will not get you anywhere.”

Since her father’s death Marina has received death threats, threats that she and her family would be beheaded and demands for her to convert and marry a jihadist.

In 2018 Egyptian General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ordered a comprehensive military crackdown on Daesh in Sinai, however the offensive led to the demolition of thousands of homes and forcible displacement of the local population.

There has been an almost total media blackout on the army’s activities in North Sinai since journalists and human rights organisations are banned.