The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights announced on Monday, October 26, 2026, the completion of release procedures for six Christian youths, including a child, from Ezbet Tanios in the village of Taha al-Aamida in Samalut district, Minya Governorate, after the Supreme State Security Prosecution decided on October 19 to release them on a guarantee of residence, pending Case No. 8430 of 2026 (State Security), according to the Initiative’s statement.
The prosecution charged the six youths with exploiting religion to promote extremist ideas and offending a religion. The Initiative said the prosecution questioned them on October 10 and ordered their pretrial detention, then presented them on October 11 for a detention renewal in the absence of their lawyers.
The case began with a short video the youths filmed in early October and posted on TikTok, imitating a comedy scene from the film Khalawees (2018), in which prisoners prepare to perform prayer without any of them knowing the required verses. The youths deleted the video after being warned it could be misunderstood, but a village resident reposted it, and incitement against them and their families escalated online. On October 6, their families and the church handed them over to the Samalut police station to calm tensions.
A customary reconciliation session was held in the village, attended by MP Ibrahim El-Masry, deputy chair of the House of Representatives’ Defense and National Security Committee, and clerics from Al-Azhar, the Ministry of Religious Endowments and the Samalut Diocese. The Initiative said the diocese offered a formal apology to the village’s Muslim residents, but the prosecution ordered the youths detained regardless.
Photo: 松照庵 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
