Mass grave with corpses of murdered Copts found in Libya

After the finding of a mass grave with the corpses of murdered Christian Copts in Libya, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demanded that the IS terrorists who are responsible for the crimes must be brought to justice. “The terrorists had filmed the assassination of the Coptic workers for propaganda purposes – an especially abhorrent crime, and a crime against humanity. The perpetrators, whose names are now known, must not go unpunished,” said Ulrich Delius, the director of the STP, in Göttingen on Sunday. Last Friday, the mass grave with 21 corpses had been discovered to the south of the harbor town Sirte in Libya after an arrested IS-supporter had revealed further information regarding its location. The informant had also revealed the names of several IS terrorists who were involved in the assassination or had filming the gruesome scene.

The abducted Christians – 20 Egyptian Copts and one person from Ghana – were beheaded on a beach near Sirte in February 2015, and the incident had been filmed. All the hostages were wearing orange protective suits, and their hands had been tied together on their backs. According to the IS-supporter, only one of the victims had tried to resist his assassination. The IS-supporter made a confession, stating that he had brought the bodies of the victims from the beach to the desert to bury them in a mass grave.

Thirteen of the 20 murdered Egyptian Christians lived in the village Al-Our in the province of Minya in Middle Egypt. The construction workers had been abducted from construction sites in Libya in December 2014 and January 2015. Their cold-blooded beheading had gotten attention and had caused revulsion all over the world – and especially in Egypt. The Egyptian government had sent combat aircraft to carry out targeted bombings of IS bases in neighboring Libya.

The IS had used the mass murder for a propaganda video that had been distributed via social media platforms within the same month. Further, the terrorist organization had announced more attacks on Christians in Egypt.

After their exhumation, the bodies were taken to the forensic science laboratory in Misrata for further identification. From there, they will soon be transferred to their family members in Egypt.

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