The family of a Coptic Christian soldier in the Egyptian army, who died under suspicious circumstances in February, is demanding an autopsy.
On 17 February, the Egyptian military informed the family of Michael Gamel Mansour that the 22-year-old conscript from Assuit had committed suicide. They claimed Mansour shot himself. They asserted that moments before his suicide, Mansour became despondent after a family telephone conversation.
No signs
Sources have said that the family do not believe that Mansour killed himself. Family members have said the phone conversation the military cited was about innocuous issues. Mansour was not dealing with any major problems, he gave no signs that he was having any sort of psychological episode and no suicide letter was found.
Mansour was scheduled to be discharged from army service on 1 July. His case marks the third time in nine months that the government has reported a Coptic Christian soldier committing suicide. A fourth Christian was killed in August, according to the government, in a shooting incident in which no one has been criminally charged.
Ezz Tawfik, a journalist researching the deaths, said that the Egyptian Government reported the alleged cause of Mansour’s death so fast that it was impossible for officials to have conducted any worthwhile investigation.
