Arrest after Coptic monks stabbed to death in South Africa

CAIRO: South African police on Wednesday arrested a suspect in connection with the murder in a church of three Egyptian Coptic Orthodox monks.
The motive for Tuesday’s fatal stabbings remains unclear.
“The 35-year-old man is expected to appear before Cullinan Magistrates’ Court on 14 March 2024,” South African Police Service said in a statement.
The monks were murdered on Tuesday at Cullinan, 50 km northeast of Pretoria, the police department said.
“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,” it said.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was “closely following the investigations into the killing of three Egyptian monks,” along with the country’s embassy in Pretoria.
The Egyptian ambassador hoped that the investigation leads to “uncovering the circumstances of the incident, the identity of the perpetrators, and holding them accountable.”
The Coptic Orthodox Church of South Africa, in a Facebook message, expressed “deep anguish over the occurrence of such a tragic incident.”
The church and Egypt’s Foreign Ministry extended condolences to the families of the monks, identified on church social media pages as Hegumen Takla El-Samuely, Yostos Ava Markos and Mina Ava Markos, AFP said.
According to police, the suspect or suspects left the scene without taking anything.
The Coptic Orthodox community in South Africa consists of about 4,500 families, according to the church’s website, in a country of 62 million people.
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the highest seat of Islamic learning in Egypt, condemned the killings.
He said that attacking a person in a place of worship was a “hateful terrorist act” and that “religious laws, with their values calling for peace and love, can never be a justification for murder and terrorism.”
Al-Tayeb offered his condolences to Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, patriarch of the See of St. Mark, and to the families of the victims.
The church expressed its “extreme pain” over the killings and offered its condolences to the families of the three monks.
A statement said that Pope Tawadros II was closely following the case.