Police in the town of Manfalout, Assuit, some 350km south of Cairo, are investigated a crime of a Coptic boy who went missing on 9 December, and whose dead body was later found with both his eyes gouged out.
The body of 13-year-old Ishaq Nash’at was found on the bank of a canal in the village of al-Ezba, Manfalout. His family says that persons from a village close by had asked Nash’at, who drove a tuk-tuk, to drive them home to their village; this is the last the family knew of him. They filed a report with the police who later found his dead body on the bank of the canal. His clothes were covered in blood and both his eyes had been gouged out. Investigations are ongoing.
A funeral service was held for Nash’at at the Evangelical church in al-Ezba. Huge crowds attended the service and burial, voicing horror at the incident and demanding justice.
Nash’at’s family refused to receive condolences, saying they would not do so till they know “the truth behind the murder of their son”. Refusing condolences means that, unless justice takes its course.