Egyptian cleric charged with Coptic monks' murders

A senior Egyptian priest at the Coptic Orthodox Church of SA, Father Samuel ava Marcus, told the Cullinan Magistrate's Court that he speaks no English and has no idea why he was in the dock. Father Samuel, together with Saeed Basanda, are charged with three counts of murder for allegedly stabbing three Egyptian Coptic monks at the church’s monastery in Cullinan, Pretoria, last Tuesday. A TimesLIVE report says according to the charge sheet, they allegedly hit and cut the deceased with an axe. Father Samuel spoke limited English and seemed unable to follow proceedings. The court informed him it would postpone the matter for him and his co-accused to receive legal representation, but he replied: ‘I can talk now and you can let me go. I don’t know why I am here. I came into the country legally, but I broke my visa,’ he told the court. Magistrate Petro Engelbrecht reminded him that ‘this is a murder case’, stating that he faced schedule six charges. Due to the language barrier, the two accused initially refused to sign an application form to obtain Legal Aid but eventually conceded when an Egyptian member of the church briefly translated for the two in Arabic. While police had initially said a fourth person had survived after being hit in the hand with an iron rod, TimesLIVE says the fourth person was co-accused Basanda, who is believed to have been a worker at the church and was the first to be arrested. The matter has been postponed to 22 March. Workers arrived on Tuesday morning to find blood stains in the church and the bodies of assistant bishop Father Takla Moussa, Father Minah ava Marcus and Father Youstos ava Marcus.

The Sunday Times reports that news of the murders spread quickly. In the UK, Archbishop Anba Angaelos, of the London Coptic Orthodox Church, took to X to express his shock. And the local leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church said: ‘The Egyptian embassy has called upon all Coptic Orthodox Church members, both South Africans and Egyptians, to allow the law to take its own course, not to interfere with (police) investigations.’