Death sentence upheld against murderer of Marg priest Sama'an Shehata

CAIRO - 12 November 2020: The Cassation Court upheld on Thursday the death sentence given to a man who murdered a priest with a cleaver in 2017.

Ahmed al-Sunbaty was 19 years old at the time of the murder. He had decided the day before to kill any Coptic clergyman outside a church in Marg, Cairo, and attacked priest Sama'an Shehata, 45, according to the court. He did not know Shehata prior to the murder.

He was followed and apprehended by passers-by and witnesses soon after the crime.

Sunbaty has consumed his legal proceedings with three trials, and the court decided he had planned the killing, was not mentally unstable, and that his action was motivated by extremist ideology.