By MCN –
A spate of alleged suicides by Coptic soldiers inside their bases has raised the concern of a number of human rights activists, who are calling for investigations into the deaths.
Safwat Girgis, director of the Egyptian Center for Human Rights, told MCN that the alleged suicides of a number of Christian soldiers has raised many questions amid lack of investigations on the issue.
“In many cases, the military spokesman declares data to reveal developments of various issues, so why did not they deal with the same method in case of Coptic soldiers . Families of victims have right to know what happened to their sons, and to know facts and proofs.”
Girgis mentioned that investigations would reveal the truth and prevent any rumors in order to maintain transparency of the military institution and to show respect for the community.
At the same time, a number of social networking websites published a document said to be taken from the military institution stressing necessity of following up physiological conditions of soldiers in order to prevent spread of those cases inside the military institution and to prevent rumors and problems between soldiers without a clear solution.
Killing cases of Coptic soldiers inside their military units repeated several times and all cases were claimed to be committed suicide. The last case was case of soldier Michael Gamal, 22, from Assyut, Upper Egypt, who died inside his battalion at Shebin-El-Kom, al-Minufiyah Governorate. He was killed by a bullet inside the battalion and was transferred to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Security sources said that soldier Michael Gamal had committed suicide by shooting himself in Shebin-El-Kom stadium.
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