An Egyptian pastor has been dismissed from the church following accusations of sexual abuse against young girls spanning several years, according to the General Assembly of the Church of God in Egypt.
The decision, taken on April 17 and announced on Tuesday, ends the pastoral and administrative affiliation of Pastor Latif Ramsis Tawfik with the Assembly. Tawfik, a former member of the General Evangelical Council, faces longstanding allegations of sexual harassment and assault against girls inside the church over several years.
The dismissal decision, reviewed by Al Manassa, was issued in the presence of the dismissed pastor and a church representative, and the Evangelical denomination’s leadership was notified to implement the required procedural measures and receive all documents and assets in his possession.
The case dates back to March 2025, when one of the victims who attended the church marked International Women’s Day with a Facebook post in which she described the pastor as a “harasser and pedophile,” and said she and other girls had been subjected to abuse by him since childhood.
She described her shock at a man that she and her family once regarded as “like God on earth, whose words were to be obeyed,” saying he had another face that, in her words, only victims ever saw.
She later updated the same Facebook post, saying she had received testimonies from other alleged victims confirming they had been subjected to harassment by the same individual.
In April 2025, the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) called on the Church of God to speed up investigations into the harassment and sexual assault complaints against the pastor and to suspend him pending a decision.
The organization, which represented the victims legally, said that at the time, there were administrative obstacles in the church’s handling of the case. Most importantly, it said that a member of the fact-finding committee was removed after she requested guarantees to protect the safety of survivors.
Human rights lawyer at CEWLA Abdel Fattah Yahya described the recent dismissal decision as “a victory for survivors after a long period of demands for investigation and accountability,” adding that “at first glance, the statement is encouraging and suggests there was no attempt to shield the pastor,” in comments to Al Manassa.
However, he pointed out that the church’s statement did not explicitly state sexual violations as the reason for the dismissal, which gave the pastor an opportunity to claim his removal was for different reasons.
“Citing the reason would have been necessary to reinforce the culture of reporting and encourage girls to come forward against perpetrators,” he told Al Manassa.
Yahya further revealed that the defense team faced significant difficulties over a year of church-led investigations, saying: “The investigations were conducted as if they were a ‘state secret,’ and the church refused to provide us or the complainants with copies of the findings.” He added that the pastor exploited this lack of transparency to file “defamation” lawsuits against survivors in an attempt to intimidate them.
Yahya also said that criminal prosecution is complicated by procedural constraints in Egyptian law, including short reporting deadlines, while some allegations date back decades to when the victims were children.
He added that although the constitution stipulates that violations of bodily integrity should not be subject to statutes of limitation, this principle is not reflected in procedural law, making church dismissal the only available accountability route in such cases.
He concluded by stressing the need for transparent institutional mechanisms within religious bodies to receive complaints, conduct investigations, and publish findings, arguing that secretive procedures undermine accountability and the protection of women and children from gender-based violence.
