Sunday, January 16, 2011

Man sentenced to death in Egypt over Copt killings

I found a news article on the BBC World News link. The article was about a man, who is sentenced to death for killing seven people. The man, Hamam Kamouni, shot six Coptic Christians and one Muslim police officer.  The shooting was thought to have happened in result of a twelve year old girl getting raped. Two other men are being charged in the shooting also, but there verdict has not been decided yet. Hamam Kamouni's trial was held recently after a bombing that had killed 23 people. Some were satisfied with the verdict, except for the defence lawyer said that the crime was influence by the bombing. Coptic Christians have a very little population in Africa, the Coptic Christians have become sour in the fact that justice has taking so long to be served. They feel like they are treated unfair in Africa with crimes against them going unpunished. The government denies the unfair treatment claimed by the Coptic Christian's, but the Pope ordered officials to listen to their concerns more.

What I found interesting was that in Egypt they have the death penalty like some of the states in  United States. I didn't know that the justice system had any similarities as the system in the United States. Even though towards the end of the article you see a group that feels discriminated against, you at least know that justice was served.  Also what I found interesting was that people claimed the bombing had an influence in the verdict, in the United States I know that sometimes trials are moved to different counties because of pre publicity. I wounder if their justice system ever considered this? What caught my attention was the justice system in Egypt sounds like it is pretty well set up, for what little information I got from the article. I know in other countries in Africa there is little to no justice.