Armanious Family Relatives Go to D.C.

WASHINGTON - Relatives of Hossam Armanious - who along with his wife and two daughters was savagely murdered last month at Jersey City, N.J. - said at a press conference here yesterday that the family was probably killed because of their religious beliefs.

The Armanious family were devout Christians and members of an Orthodox sect from Egypt known as Coptic Christians. On January 14, they were found in their home tied up and stabbed multiple times, with no apparent signs of forced entry. Police said they found Hossam's pockets turned inside out and his wallet emptied, but there was jewelry left behind in the house. Robbery is among the motives being considered by authorities. There are also questions about Hossam's participation in online chat rooms where he attempted to convert people to Christianity, angering some Muslims.

The Armanious relatives yesterday spent the day in meetings with members of Congress, and FBI and Justice Department officials.

In a prepared statement read by Michael Meunier, a representative of the U.S. Copts Association, the relatives of the Armanious family rejected several theories about the motive for the grisly murders.

It was not an old country vendetta, they said. Also, there was no mysterious trip to Egypt last year made by Hossam. As for robbery, the relatives said the family had no hidden wealth, just a mortgage and credit line, and that they kept their cash in the bank.

At the somber press conference, Reverend Dr. Keith Roderick of Christian Solidarity International, and Robert Turner of the Jubilee Campaign, read eloquent messages of support. They called on government officials to diligently investigate the crime, without excluding a possible religious motive for fear of exacerbating tensions surrounding the case.

The most probable method and motive for the slayings, the relatives said, is a ritual murder for religious reasons.

Though the Coptic tattoo on 16-year-old Sylvia Armanious's wrist was not slashed as had been initially reported, other details of the execution-style killings do follow a Koranic prescription, Mr. Meunier said.

Asked why the Copts had not reached out to Muslims following the murders, Mr. Meunier said that the relatives did not reach out for sympathy or support, it came to them spontaneously from ordinary Americans, from Christians, from Jews, from Lebanese.

"Was it true that Hossam fled persecution in Egypt?" a relative asked. "No," he said. Hossam came to America like many who come here, in pursuit of a dream.