Daily News Egypt

 
CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced five Muslims to life in prison for killing two Christian men in a family blood-feud in Upper Egypt, a judicial source said.

The court in the southern city of Luxor found the men guilty of shooting two Coptic Christians in the town of Higaza last April in a feud between their two families that goes back to 2004.

Tensions between Muslims and Christians in southern Egypt were heightened last month after a drive-by shooting in the town of Nagaa Hammadi in which six Coptic Christians and a Muslim policeman were killed.

A state security court has since put on trial three Muslim suspects in the killings.

Copts account for between six and 10 percent of Egypt’s 80-million population. They complain of systematic discrimination and marginalization. –AFP