The attorney-general ordered the detention of 15 people accused of inciting sectarian strife in the coastal city of Marsa Matrouh on Saturday. The defendants are currently being held for 15 days pending further investigation.
Prosecutors visited the city, which had recently witnessed clashes between Muslim and Coptic residents, and inspected the resultant property damage.
"I’ve been here for more than 32 years," said Bishop Bakhomius of the Marsa Matrouh Catholic church. "And I’ve never seen clashes like this before."
Although calm has since been restored to the area, security forces have been deployed in the vicinity to preempt further incidents of violence.
In a related development, the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights has formed a fact-finding committee mandated with monitoring incidents of sectarian strife, which have become increasingly common in recent years.
Police in Qena managed to thwart what appeared to be another potentially sectarian incident when 300 people gathered in front of a building claiming that two men had abducted a local woman and were holding her captive.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
