Egypt frees 23 Coptic protesters

An Egyptian court on Wednesday released 23 Coptic Christian protesters after six weeks in custody, Egypt's state-run news agency MENA reported.

They were the last to be freed of 154 protesters arrested at a rally in November in southwestern Cairo at which two demonstrators died in clashes with the police, an event still under investigation by the judiciary.

The release comes after a New Year's Day bombing of a church in Alexandria that killed 21 people and sparked angry protests among Copts -- between six and 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million.

On November 24 bloody clashes erupted in Cairo's Talibiya district between Coptic protesters and police over the refusal of local authorities to allow them to turn a community center into a church.

Coptic Christians complain that legislation pertaining to the building of churches is more restrictive than for the construction of mosques.

MENA reported that the release of the protesters was in response to a request by their lawyers, without further clarification.

Released to appease Copts

The release comes as Egyptian authorities appeal to the Coptic community for calm after the New Year's Day attack and ahead of Coptic Christmas on Friday.

Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmud, who took the decision to release the protesters, travelled to Alexandria on Wednesday to probe the attack for which no group has yet claimed responsibility.

Investigators on Tuesday said they had found a head that may have belonged to the suicide bomber, and which could help identify the attacker.

Egyptian authorities suspect the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber with links to Al-Qaeda.

The Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, had threatened in November to attack Egypt's Copts to force the release of two Coptic priests' wives who they claimed had converted to Islam and were being held against their will.

An al-Qaeda-linked website then published a list of Egyptian and European Coptic churches it said should be attacked, including the Alexandria church.