At 03:22 PM on Saturday, March 25, 2023, a volunteer muezzin was murdered at the corner of Muhammad Hassan in the Wardian district, west of Alexandria, by an unemployed person with criminal information. Eyewitnesses revealed the last moments before the murder, where a verbal altercation occurred between the accused’s father and Sheikh Hassan al-Koumi because the latter refused to perform the call to prayer. The victim’s nephew, Moataz Essam Muhammad, narrated that his uncle then entered to pray Taraweeh, but the accused and his father waited for him outside the mosque and killed him. Major General Khaled Al-Barawi, Assistant Minister and Director of Alexandria Security, received a notification of the incident and immediately sent officers to the scene. The accused and his father were later arrested, and the Public Prosecution ordered an investigation into the incident. The accused is currently detained pending further investigations.
03:22 PM
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Alexandria – Muhammad Amer and Muhammad Al-Badri:
Eyewitnesses revealed the scenes of the last moments in the murder of a volunteer muezzin at the corner of Muhammad Hassan in the Wardian district, west of Alexandria, by an unemployed person with criminal information.
Moataz Essam Muhammad, the victim’s nephew, narrated that a verbal altercation broke out between the accused’s father and Sheikh Hassan al-Koumi before sunset, because the latter refused to perform the aforementioned call to prayer, saying: “The people rejected him as a thug … and my uncle called the sunset prayer.”
“Moataz” continued: “Then my uncle entered to pray Taraweeh..but the accused and his father entered the prayer and waited for him outside the mosque and killed him..the whole issue happened in minutes..it was a single blow to his neck.”
He added: “My uncle Fadl crawled on his leg to the door of the mosque and prostrated and pronounced the shahada, and people tried to cover the wound with towels, and we arrived at the hospital. They told us to stay for God.. and we want his right.”
Muhammad Ashour, the victim’s nephew, said in a live broadcast on the official page of “Masrawy” on Facebook, that previous disputes arose between the accused, his father, and Sheikh Hassan Al-Koumi, because of the accused’s father’s insistence on calling the call to prayer in the mosque by force without the desire of its pioneers.
“Ashour” added: “Sheikh Hassan Al-Koumi said, “Your voice is a monster, and you don’t know how to call the call to prayer.. And the imam of the mosque appointed by the endowments issued a report for the aforementioned at the police station to prevent him from calling the call to prayer, to no avail.”
He pointed out that Sheikh Hassan was a volunteer for the call to prayer in the mosque, saying: “All people loved him, may God have mercy on him..Hassan called the Maghrib call despite the father of the accused, so they waited for him in Tarawih prayer and killed him.”
Major General Khaled Al-Barawi, Assistant Minister and Director of Alexandria Security, had received a notification from the Mina Al-Basal Police Department’s sheriff that a report had been received from the Rescue Police Department stating that the imam of Muhammad Hassan’s corner in Al-Wardian had been killed.
The officers of the department moved, accompanied by the ambulance, to the Al-Balagh site, and it was found from the inspection that a person named “Budeh”, registered, after completing Tarawih prayers on the second day of Ramadan, killed the victim, “H.A.A.L.” stabbed with a white weapon.
Investigations and eyewitnesses revealed that there were previous disputes between the victim and the father of the accused, because he refused the latter to perform the call to prayer in the mosque against the desire of the pioneers, which was previously reported. The accused killed the muezzin as punishment for preventing his father from performing the call to prayer.
The accused and his father were arrested in an ambush prepared for them, and the necessary report of the incident was issued at the Mina Al-Basal Police Station.
The Public Prosecution decided to quickly request investigations into the incident, unload surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the accident, question eyewitnesses, and seize the weapon used and send it to the criminal laboratory.
The Public Prosecution ordered the detention of the accused pending investigations, and permission to bury the victim’s body after the forensic doctor completed its autopsy.
Also read:
A crime in Tarawih prayer.. Details of the killing of a muezzin over a dispute over raising the call to prayer in Alexandria
“My father must give the call to prayer.” 6 decisions of the prosecution in the killing of a muezzin at the door of a mosque in Alexandria – video and photos
A pool of blood in front of the mosque.. The first pictures from the scene of the murder of the muezzin of Alexandria (video and photos)
The murder of the volunteer muezzin in Alexandria has shocked and saddened the community. Eyewitnesses have revealed the disturbing details of the incident, which took place over a dispute about the call to prayer. The victim’s family is seeking justice and the accused and his father have been arrested. The Public Prosecution has ordered swift investigations, and the community waits to see justice served. Our thoughts are with the family of the victim during this difficult time.