One year ago today—October 9, 2011—at least 25 Christians were killed by the Egyptian army during a peaceful protest in what came to be known as the Maspero Massacre, and later dubbed by activists as ‘Bloody Sunday’.

One year on, only three soldiers, who have been charged with "involuntary manslaughter" and sentenced to just two and three years in jail, have been held responsible for the events.

"Bloody Sunday" saw hundreds of peaceful protesters, the majority of which were Copts, march from Cairo's working-class district of Shubra to the state radio and television building Maspero.

Maspero was chosen as state media had sparked widespread disapproval due to its coverage of preceding events.

The protest, which the government and the military reportedly approved, was leveled at the authorities who had failed to investigate the burning of a church, in Merinab village in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Aswan.

Several thousand Egyptians marched for miles through Cairo on Tuesday 10/9, marking the year anniversary of a military crackdown on Christian protesters that killed 26 people and demanding retribution against army leaders they hold responsible for the deaths.

Muslim clerics, Christian priests, activists and liberal former lawmakers joined the procession, filling large boulevards to memorialize the "Maspero massacre," referring to the name of the state TV building overlooking the Nile River where the violence took place a year ago.

The crowd marched about six kilometers (four miles) to the TV building, retracing the route the march a year ago took. "The people want the execution of the field marshal," many chanted, referring to Tantawi. Others carried a banner reading, "Put them on trial," with pictures of Tantawi and other members of the military council he headed.

Tears and ululations were common along the long march, and young Muslim and Christian women held a vigil outside the TV building to remember those killed.

In a funeral-style procession, the crowd carried a replica of a sun boat – the curved boat that the ancient pharaohs would have buried with them to take them into the afterlife – with images of those killed in the crackdown. There was a large flag of Mina Daniel, a prominent young Christian activist who was among those who died. Others waved Egyptian flags with the Muslim crescent and Christian cross in a show of unity.

Outside the TV building, priests chanted songs to remember the dead and pray for Egypt to be saved. Reflecting their growing disappointment, and fear of an Islamist-ruled Egypt, they chanted with the crowd as a chorus: "Our free sons in the revolution humiliated the corrupt leader and turned him into a prisoner. But their brothers fooled them and stole the revolution from the squares. In the name of the law, they misled the people and chose a ruler for the millions. But the revolution continues and will continue to say no."