A misdemeanor court in 15th May City, Helwan, on Thursday acquitted 18 defendants of charges linked to clashes with police during protests over the demolition of a church wall.
The defendants, including five women, had faced accusations of assaulting and injuring two officers during a Feb. 3 confrontation outside Pope Kyrillos Church in the Zuhour May area. Security forces moved to enforce a demolition order against a concrete wall built without authorization to expand the church’s grounds.
Police said the clashes left two officers with head lacerations requiring hospital treatment. Authorities arrested 18 people at the site, later charging them with insulting and resisting public employees — offenses carrying prison terms of at least six months.
Marina Samir, a researcher on freedom of religion and belief at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the acquittal showed the dispute could have been resolved through dialogue rather than a security confrontation.
According to the police report, the clashes left two officers with head lacerations: the head of investigations for the Helwan division and a major in the Central Security sector. Both were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Security forces then arrested 18 people, 13 men and five women, saying they were among those gathered at the demolition site. Later police investigations accused them of assaulting the forces and resisting the authorities in order to obstruct enforcement of the removal order.
On Feb. 22, after the male defendants had been held for four days pending investigation and then another 15 days, prosecutors released them on bail of 2,000 Egyptian pounds and referred all of the defendants to trial. The charges included insulting public employees by gesture, speech, or threat while they were performing their duties, and resisting public employees by force and violence while they were performing their duties. Each charge carries a penalty of at least six months in prison and a fine of at least 200 pounds.
The court dropped those charges on Thursday in a ruling that Samir said reflected an understanding of the circumstances of the incident.
Samir told Al Manassa that the young men who were charged were not the side that initiated violence, but were defending their church land based on what they believed were legal grounds.
She blamed the police for the escalation, saying the use of tear gas and the arrest of women provoked the young men’s response and worsened the situation. She said that could have been avoided through proper administrative and legal procedures before the removal was carried out.
She also criticized the lack of a graduated response to the crisis, saying authorities should have sent prior warnings and given the church time to remove the violations. She said the immediate resort to force, without trying to reach an amicable solution between church leaders and the 15 May City Authority, turned an administrative dispute over a wall into a security and legal confrontation that strained all sides.
Samir added that the whole approach to allocating land for churches needs to change, calling for participatory planning that takes into account the needs of worshipers and the local community before implementation begins.
She said involving beneficiaries in determining the church’s specifications and needs would help prevent a gap between state decisions and realities on the ground, reducing the chances of similar disputes recurring over issues that cut to the heart of freedom of belief and social stability.
