Killing of Wael Mikhael and Mina Daniel

On 9 October 2011, thousands of mainly Coptic Christian demonstrators marched from the Shubra district of northern Cairo to Maspero Square, outside the state television building, intending to hold a peaceful sit-in in protest at state media's role in stoking anti-Christian sentiment. According to the source account, demonstrators were first attacked by assailants in plain clothes, after which military armored vehicles drove into the crowd and live ammunition was fired.

Wael Mikhael, a cameraman for a Coptic Orthodox television station, was killed while filming the demonstration; Mina Daniel, a political activist and blogger, was also killed. The confrontation lasted about four hours and left 25 people dead — 21 of them Coptic Christians — and more than 300 wounded, according to Egypt's Health Ministry as cited in the source. Witnesses and doctors reported that most of the dead had been shot, and that some had been struck by armored vehicles driven by soldiers deployed to police the demonstration.

The killings drew attention to the army's apparent role in the violence and to long-standing grievances of Egypt's Coptic Christian community over discrimination. Two media-rights organizations called on Egyptian authorities to investigate the deaths of the journalists. Mina Daniel's sister described him as "a very kind, righteous person" who "dreamed of Egypt becoming like Europe, where the young people don't have to travel abroad to live their dreams."