Egyptian prisons to hold Easter mass services

CAIRO – 15 April 2017: The Ministry of Interior is organizing mass services for Copts in public prisons around the country Saturday, coinciding with the Coptic Holy Week.

Inmates will be allowed to practice their religious rituals and receive gifts, on the occasion of Easter celebration, the Ministry of Interior said. It added that the gesture reflects the ministry’s reform policy and the implementation of punitive policies in a modern sense.

Over eight million Copts in Egypt have celebrated the Holy Week, from April 9-15, despite the

Palm Sunday tragedy

that left at least 45 people killed and over 110 injured, as a result of attacks on two Coptic churches in Tanta and Alexandria.

Egypt’s Ministry of Interior approved the organization of mass services in prisons for the first time in May 2016 in the Minya prison in Upper Egypt. The ministry has also allowed Christmas mass services across the country’s jails in January 2017.