Egypt Attempts to Convict Christian to Justify Muslim Riots

Cairo: December 20, 2010
By Mary Abdelmassih AINA

The high profile criminal trial of 21-year-old Christian Copt Girgis Baroumi, accused of sexually assaulting a Muslim girl, is viewed by the Coptic community as an example of how the Egyptian government, using all its organs, including the Attorney General, Interior Minister and Parliament Speaker, has conspired to use him as a scapegoat to justify deadly Muslim assaults on Christians.

Girgis Baroumi, a traveling poultry vendor, is believed to have been framed by State Security (AINA 1-28-2010) in order to use the crime as a pretext for the 3-day rampage by Muslim mobs on Christians in Farshout in November 2009 (AINA 11-22-2009), and most importantly to depict the Christmas Eve Massacre of six Copts in Nag Hammadi in January 2010 as an honor crime rather than a sectarian one. the rest