Deputy Minister of Interior for Legal Affairs General Hamed Rashed has declared that the Samalout train shooting, where a policeman opened fire in a train killing one Copt and injuring five Copts, was an "individual act and not related to any organised group or to sectarian tensions."
Rashed asserted in the People's Assembly on Saturday that the incident should not be seen as related to sectarian tensions or to terrorism. He added that the accused policeman, Amer Ashour, was banned for a year in 2006 from carrying his weapon after being diagnosed psychologically unstable.
The diagnosis believed that Amer's state was temporary, after which he was allowed to resume work normally and carry his weapon.
The accused opened fire on 11 January in a train in the Upper Egypt town of Samalout.
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