.... The lawyers claimed the cartoons offended Islam but Sawiris said they were just a joke and had no religious dimensions.
Coptic Christians make up around 10 percent of Muslim-majority Egypt's population and have frequently been targeted by Islamic extremists. They also claim they are discriminated against by the state.
In January 2011, a suicide bomber killed more than 20 Christians outside a church in the northern port city of Alexandria, amid accusations by Islamists that the Coptic Church had detained a woman who converted to Islam. [AKI] Read more
