SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE DETAIN SUSPECT AFTER 3 EGYPTIANS MONKS STABBED TO DEATH

Thu 14 March 2024:

South African police said Wednesday that they have arrested a suspect following the murder of three Egyptian nationals.

The Coptic Orthodox Church of South Africa said Tuesday in a statement posted on social media that three members of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church were subjected to a criminal attack in the Saint Mark the Apostle and Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Cullinan, South Africa.

“A suspect has been arrested in connection with the triple murder of the monks that happened on March 12, at a monastery in Cullinan. The 35-year-old man is expected to appear before Cullinan Magistrates’ Court on March 14,” the South African Police Service said in a statement.

“All three victims were found with stab wounds, while the fourth victim that survived alleged that he was hit by an iron rod on his hand before fleeing and hiding in one of the rooms,” the police statement said.

The police said the suspect left without taking any valuable items or properties from the place and the motive of murder is unknown at this stage.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “closely following the investigations into the killing of three Egyptian monks”.

The Coptic Orthodox Church said all three monks were Egyptian nationals as it named them as Hegumen Takla el-Samuely, Yostos Ava Markos and Mina Ava Markos.

“There is no doubt that it is a painful incident,” Pope Tawadros II said in a statement on Wednesday, calling the monks “martyrs” and saying that the church had sent a delegation to South Africa.

“There are many rumours, but so far the truth of the situation has not become apparent. We console their families, we console the church there, and we console ourselves.”

No date has been set for a funeral but the monks will likely be buried in South Africa where they served according to tradition, the pope added.

The church had in recent months condemned Israel’s continuing war on Gaza.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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