A 20-year-old Egyptian Christian was killed in Libya after he refused to deny Jesus Christ and convert to Islam, according to reporting by the Christian Post, drawing on the persecution watchdogs International Christian Concern and Open Doors.

Milad Malak, a deacon at a Coptic church in his home village of Sebarbay in Egypt's Gharbia governorate, had traveled to Libya on September 2 with two Muslim friends from his village, hoping to find work as Egypt's economy declined. Islamic State fighters seized the three men in Zliten on the morning of October 4.

According to Open Doors, citing the two Muslim friends who were later freed, Malak was the only Christian among the Egyptian workers the militants held. The watchdogs report that for several days his captors tortured him and threatened to kill him to force him to give up Christianity for Islam.

"Even if you cut me into pieces, I would never renounce my faith," Malak told his captors, according to International Christian Concern, as reported by the outlet.

His two friends were freed after their families paid $4,700, and they are now receiving medical treatment in a hospital in Egypt. Malak's family learned of his death from the freed friends and asked the Egyptian government to press for the return of his body, which was handed over several weeks later. Relatives and other Christians gathered on October 28 to mourn him, the Christian Post reported.

Libya is ranked No. 9 on Open Doors' World Watch List of the most dangerous countries for Christians.

Both Open Doors and International Christian Concern linked Malak's death to the 2015 killing of 20 Coptic Christians and a Ghanaian man by Islamic State militants in Libya. According to Open Doors, the militants took the men to a beach and beheaded them after they refused a final demand to renounce their faith. Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church declared the 21 men martyrs, and Pope Francis added them to the Roman Catholic Church's list of martyrs in 2023.

Malak's stand is a reminder that the same faith that carried those 21 men in 2015 is still being counted costly today — and that the Church in Egypt and Libya continues to bear witness under threat, just as believers have done since the first century.