Print

Mail

wiki links

Brutal slaying of family stuns rural Egyptian village

Ten mutilated bodies were found early on Thursday in a southern Egyptian village, some of them missing their vital organs and laying in pools of blood, police sources said.

The bodies of 10 Egyptians -- four men, two women and four children -- were found in three neighboring houses in the village of Ezbet Shams el-Din, 225km south of Cairo, the sources said.

Their stomachs and throats were slashed open and many of their body parts, including genitals, were cut off, said a source in this village near the town of Bani Mazar in the Minya governorate.

Neighbors and relatives later identified the victims in one of the houses as primary school teacher Yehia Ahmed Abu Baker, 35, his wife Nemaat Ali Mohammed, 25, and two children, Mohammed and Asmaa.

A son who spent the night at his grandmother's discovered the bodies in the morning, witnesses told police.

"Yehia never had problems with anybody," his cousin and brother-in-law Mohammed Ezzat Abdul Latif said.

In the second house lay the disfigured bodies of Taha Abdul Meguid Mohammed, a 26-year-old lawyer, and his mother, Anad Ahmed Hassan.

Mohammed's brother, who lives nearby, found the bodies when he went to the house to wake him up for dawn prayers, police said.

The third house contained the bodies of farmer Said Mahmud Abdu, 50, his wife Sabah Ali Abul Wahab, 45, and two children, 10-year-old Ahmed and eight-year-old Fatma.

Abdu's two other daughters, who live on the second floor of the building discovered the bodies.

Neighbors said that none of the victims had differences with people in the village.

"They were nice people and had good relations with all," Mohammed Ali said.

Neighbors also said that they heard nothing unusual at night.

"I did not hear any cries for help," said Zaki Mahmud Abdul Wahad, who lives nearby.

All the victims lived on the same street.

Police immediately ruled out routine motives for murder -- which in Upper Egypt include vendettas, land disputes, honor killings or sectarian violence -- as a possible reason for the slaughter.

"We also rule out theft, as nothing was removed from the three houses," a senior security official in the area said.

There was no blood relation between the victims in the three houses in the impoverished village and police said they still had no clue if the crime was committed by an individual or more than one person.

But initial reports suggested that there was no forced entry into the houses nor was their any sign of resistance by the victims.

"The culprit or culprits did not leave any evidence," the security official said.

He added that the only lead they had was the same weapon, possibly a machete, appeared to be used in all three cases.

"It was a horrible crime," said villager Shaaban Mohammed.

He added that the entire village was stunned by savagery with which the crimes were committed.
This story has been viewed 1312 times.