Egypt’s top mufti to weigh in on penalty for priest’s killer

By SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court has referred the case of a man accused of stabbing to death a Coptic Christian priest to the country’s top mufti, the highest religious authority for Islam. The grand mufti decision on whether the suspect should be given the death penalty and executed is a non-binding opinion, but it can influence the court’s ruling. The 56-year-old priest was killed at the popular seaside promenade in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria last month in an attack that shocked the Arab world’s most populous nation. The prosecution has sought the death penalty for the 60-year-old suspect charged with the killing.