Nine days following the bombing of an Alexandria church that took the lives of 23, questions abound concerning the findings of the investigations.
On Sunday, the prosecution office in Alexandria finished interrogating around 80 people, including those injured in the attack, and other eyewitnesses.
On Saturday, Maqar Fawzy, a pastor at the bombed church, was questioned as a witness by the prosecution office.
A Quran seller believed to trade near the mosque nearby the church failed to present himself for questioning and is currently sought after by the police.
Two reports will be added to the investigations carried out by the prosecution: one prepared by forensic experts (for the Ministry of Justice) and the other by the Department of Criminal Evidence (for the Ministry of Interior).
The Ministry of Interior is also awaiting further information from Interpol, as it is suspected that the attack’s perpertrators may be from outside Egypt.
1. What are the details of the crime scene investigations?
Street workers were seen later on the same morning of the attacks, Saturday 1 January, clearing up the bombing’s detritus. On the following Saturday, forensic experts investigated the crime scene a second time. Contradictory and rushed conclusions by the police, the Ministry of Interior and the prosecution office suggested that a detailed investigation of the scene had not been carried out in the aftermath of the bombing.
After the attack, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement saying that a preliminary check showed that a car, which the ministry said caused the explosion, had been standing in front of the Church of St. Mark and St. Peter.
However, hours later on Saturday, the ministry issued a detailed statement saying that the car was not the source of the explosion. The statement indicated that the exploded container was locally made and carried by a suicide bomber who died in the attack. The statement added that non-Egyptians planned and supervised the operation.
Initially crime scene investigators were denied entry to the church because angry youth were throwing stones at the mosque opposite. Investigators found it difficult to scan the site of the church until 3 AM.
At around 9 AM on Saturday, after ambulances left with the last nine dead bodies, around five prosecutors were finishing their first report while experts from the Department of Criminal Evidence were seen to finish their investigation.
2. What about the suicide bomber?
Until Tuesday 4 January there was no information from either the police or the prosecution office about the bomber. However, on Tuesday police said that a "severed head" found at the scene would lead to information about the suicide bomber–a man in his 30s, inspired by Al-Qaeda tactics, they said.
Police said that the bomber detonated a belt packed with between 10-15 kg of TNT, bolts and ball bearings while the worshippers emerged from the church after mass.
On Wednesday 5 January, the Ministry of Interior announced the discovery of an unidentified corpse which it believed to be the bomber. Police distributed to the media a composite drawing, having reconstructed the face of the suspect from remains found at the site of the blast.
On Thursday 6 January, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram quoted security sources as saying that the forensic evidence gathered at the site suggested the bomber may have detonated his device prematurely and did not intend to kill himself. The sources added that the bomber was probably 23 to 25 years old–not in his 30s, as police previously suggested.
The sources also said that forensic evidence such as electronic circuits and debris collected showed that the bomber used a bag resembling a school or travel bag loaded with 20-25 kg of high explosives–not a belt packed with between 10-15 kg of TNT as police had previously said.
"The forensic investigation showed that the impact on the body of the perpetrator indicates the explosion occurred by mistake or before the planned time, because it caused his body parts to scatter over several meters," Al-Ahram wrote.
However, reasons for claiming that the head belonged to the suspect remain unclear. "Our [prosecution] office has no information about the photo of the suspected perpetrator published in today's newspapers," Alexandria District Attorney Yasser al-Refaey told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Thursday.
Alexandria’s prosecutor indicated that the authorities are still trying to identify the suspected suicide bomber.
"Nobody had a clue about how the explosion had happened or the person behind it," the Alexandria prosecutor office said in a statement on Thursday.
Moreover, having disseminated the suspect's portrait, police have received many reports from citizens about the bomber. But police say that most of these notifications are baseless.
However, police also announced that they received information that the bomber rented an apartment in Dekheila district in Alexandria, and frequented a coffee shop and hairdresser in that area.
3. Does anybody or organization claim the responsibility for the bombing?
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, which came one year after the shooting of six Copts in the Upper Egyptian city of Naga Hammadi.
The Alexandria bombing came two months after Al-Qaeda attacked the Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, which killed at least 58 people.
Al-Qaeda later said its objective was to force the release of two Coptic priests' wives in Egypt, who, Al-Qaeda claimed, had converted to Islam and were being held against their will.
