Egypt executes monk for murder of bishop at monastery

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the court where two monks, Wael Saad, known by his monastic name Isaiah al-Makari and Ramon Rasmi Mansour, known as Faltaous al-Makari, were convicted of murdering Bishop Epiphanius, the abbot of Saint Macarius Monastery northwest of Cairo, in Damanhour, Egypt February 23, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Fahmy/File Photo

Authorities carried out the death penalty on an Egyptian monk who killed the abbot of his monastery in 2018, a lawyer and the monk's brother told Reuters on Sunday.

Wael Saad and Ramon Rasmi Mansour, known by their monastic names Isaiah al-Makari and Faltaous al-Makari, were convicted of the killing of Bishop Epiphanius, 64, the abbot of St Macarius Monastery, northwest of Cairo, in a case that sent shockwaves through Egypt's Coptic Christian community.

Saad's family was notified to receive his body from a morgue in the Nile Delta town of Damanhour on Sunday, his brother, who is also a monk, said.

FILE PHOTO: A general view outside the court where two monks, Wael Saad, known by his monastic name Isaiah al-Makari and Ramon Rasmi Mansour, known as Faltaous al-Makari, were convicted of murdering Bishop Epiphanius, the abbot of Saint Macarius Monastery northwest of Cairo, in Damanhour, Egypt February 23, 2019. REUTERS/Ahmed Fahmy/File Photo

Prosecutors had said during their trial that Saad struck the bishop three times in the back of the head with a steel pipe while Mansour stood guard outside.

Mansour was also sentenced to death but his sentence was reduced to life after he won an appeal.

They were defrocked in August 2018 for what church officials called violations of monastic life and then detained.

(Reporting by Haitham Ahmed and Mahmoud Mourad; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Giles Elgood)