Egyptian rights group demands action on fate of Christians kidnapped by IS

An Egyptian rights group has renewed a call to Libyan authorities to help find out the fate of eight Egyptian Christians kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) group in Libya, more than a year since they disappeared.

The call from the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms to Libya's House of Representatives and Egyptian authorities fell on the first anniversary of the release of an IS video purportedly showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Egyptians in Libya.

The commission's statement recounted the kidnapping of the workers, beginning with brothers Jamal, Rafat and Romani Hakim, and their cousin Adel Hakim, who disappeared on 24 August 2014.

The four had left Tripoli and were on their way back to Egypt via the Salloum border crossing, but were stopped at a checkpoint in the IS stronghold of Sirte.

After being questioned on their religion, IS kidnapped the four Coptic Christians, while a fifth colleague, an Egyptian Muslim, was released.

The four men were taken to an unknown location and remain missing.

A similar case took place two days later with Shehadeh Awad, another Egyptian Copt who was also on his way to the border crossing.

A few weeks later, two other Egyptian Christians, Shenouda Attiyah and Abdel Fattah Beheiri, were kidnapped from the city of Misrata on 15 September.

The two men had left their workplace in the afternoon in a car, and vanished without trace. The car was also not found.

Social media accounts affiliated to the Libyan branch of IS announced in July 2015 that they were holding captive a Coptic Christian from the Egyptian area of Suhaj, who they identified as Bakhit Ofranik, but provided no further information.

In its statement, the commission asked the Egyptian authorities to undertake all actions required to disclose any information on the kidnapped workers, while at the same time berating them for keeping quiet on the matter for more than 17 months.

In light of the forced disappearance of the workers, who are most likely the sole breadwinners in their families, the commission also urged the Ministry of Social Solidarity to undertake to guarantee income support to their families, “in order for the state to share the livelihood burden of the victims’ families”.