Former monk executed, lawyer says family only informed after execution

Wael Tawadros, a former monk who was known as Father Isaiah al-Makary, was executed on Sunday at Damanhour Prison, according to his lawyer, Ihab Sedra.

Sedra told Mada Masr that Tawadros’ family are on the way to collect his body, and that they were only informed of the death of Tawadros after the Prisons Authority had carried out the sentence, in violation of legal procedure.

Tawadros was convicted and sentenced to death in 2019 for the July 2018 murder of Bishop Epiphanius, the head of the Anba Makkar Monastery in Wadi al-Natrun desert.

Though the ruling against Tawadros was upheld by the Court of Cassation in July, the verdict against his suspected accomplice Raymond Rasmy, whose clerical name is Father Faltaos al-Makary, was reduced from death to life imprisonment.

Bishop Epiphanius was found dead on July 29, 2018 in front of his residence at Anba Makkar Monastery in Wadi al-Natrun desert. In August of the same year, Wael Tawadros was defrocked, investigated and charged with the bishop’s murder, while Rasmy was convicted for aiding Tawadros in the murder. 

In August, several of Tawadros’ lawyers at the time filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Alexandria alleging that Tawadros had been tortured by National Security Agency personnel, forcing him to confess to the murder.

Sedra told Mada Masr that he submitted an appeal with new statements and evidence on behalf of his client in April, but that he had received no response. 

Sedra said the abrupt implementation of the sentence could indicate that officials wanted the matter closed, adding that “some death sentences that were issued in 2016 have not yet been implemented.” “I pray that our Lord will reveal the truth one day,” said Sedra. 

Though executions are rarely carried out during the month of Ramadan, nine executions were carried out on April 26 this year at Wadi al-Natrun Prison in Beheira in relation to a 2013 incident, despite the fact that executions are rarely held in the Holy Month of Ramadan. 

Amnesty International issued a notice the day after the nine executions in April raising the alarm that Wael Tawadros could soon be executed given the fast escalating rate of death sentences being carried out.

The Egyptian Initative for Personal Rights has noted that over the past three years, Egypt’s use of the death penalty has shown a “steady increase.” Fifty-three executions were carried out in October, 2020 a figure which marked the largest number of death sentences to be carried out in one month over the last five years.

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