Egypt says ambassador to Mexico was not summoned

Friday 18-09-2015 09:39 PM
Egypt says ambassador to Mexico was not summoned
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CAIRO, Sept 18 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt did not receive any demands of compensation nor was its ambassador to Mexico summoned over the killing of Mexican tourists, spokesperson for the Egyptian foreign ministry, told Aswat Masriya on Friday. 

In what has been officially described as an accident, Egypt’s security forces killed 12, including eight Mexican tourists, and injured 10 others near Bahariya oasis, a tourist site at the Western desert on Sunday, mistaking them for militants.

Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zaid's statement contradicted an earlier announcement by Mexico that its deputy foreign minister Carlos de Icaza had summoned Egypt's ambassador Yasser Shabaan and delivered a memo demanding that the victims of the accident receive "full reparation for the damage, including compensation." 

He said that he was not officially notified that the ambassador was summoned.

According to Reuters, Egyptian forces bombed the convoy of Mexican tourists around 5 times over a period of 3 hours, even after security forces on the ground had stopped them twice and cleared their passage, one of six survivors of Sunday's deadly attack told Mexican newspaper El Universal from her hospital bed.

The incident prompted Mexico's condemnation. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto described it as "tragic" and demanded that the Egyptian government conduct "a thorough investigation."

The Egyptian general prosecutor issued a publishing ban on the investigation until its conclusion. The ban includes all media outlets and only allows the publishing of official statements issued by the prosecutor. 

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