Title: 'Returnees From Albania' Case Report Ends  

Document Number: FBIS-NES-1999-0310
Document Type: Daily Report
Document Title: FBIS Translated Text 
Document Region: Near East/South Asia 
Document Date: 09 Mar 1999
Division: Arab Africa 
Subdivision: Egypt 
Sourceline: MM1003112499 London Al-Sharq al-Awsat in Arabic 9 Mar 99 p 10 
AFS Number: MM1003112499 
Citysource: London Al-Sharq al-Awsat 
Language: Arabic 
N/A
Subslug: Part four of a four-part report by Khalid Sharaf-al-Din from Cairo: 
"Investigations Solve Mystery of Some Violent Incidents, Assassinations, 
and Explosions in Egypt Over 12 Years. Defendants Justify Attacks on 
Tourists as Pressure on the State. They Tell How They Watched the Houses 
of Some Security Officials and Police Officers" 


[FBIS Translated Text] One of the incidents attributed to defendant Husam 
Nuwayr, who is now on trial in the Returnees from Albania case, was the 
attack on the Egyptian National Bank 7 February 1994 in which defendant 
Ahmad 'Abd-al-Fattah Sayyid planted an explosive device in front of the 
bank. Another incident was the 15 February 1994 attack on the 
Alexandria-Kuwait Bank in which defendant Hasan Salih Mahmud planted an 
explosive device in front of the bank as he had been instructed to do. 
Other incidents included the attack on the International Commercial Bank 
in al-Muhandisin 23 February 1994, the attack on the Mustafa Kamil Branch 
of Misr Bank, the attack on the Egyptian-American Bank in al-Muhandisin, 
and the attack on the Nile Office Tower in al-Jizah. All these attacks 
were carried out on his instructions, and he personally provided the 
weapons for them. The defendant's response to all these charges was just 
one word: No. 
The State Security Prosecution Office's investigator continued to 
confront the defendant with the evidence. He leveled a number of charges 
against him, some of them related to his ties before he fled from Egypt 
with Tal'at Yasin Hammam, one of the fundamentalist organizations' 
leaders who was later killed in a confrontation with the security forces. 
Other charges related to his ties abroad, both with the Afghan and the 
Balkan groups, in addition to his constant presence at the acts of 
violence that Egypt witnessed throughout all these years. The most 
notable of these acts were the attacks on banks and important 
installations and the assassination of Maj. Gen. Ra'uf Khayrat, assistant 
director of the Higher State Security Intelligence Service, who at the 
time was in charge of monitoring the activities of the extremist 
fundamentalist organizations. Nuwayr responded to all these accusations 
with one single word: No. 
The investigator recorded the following: As the defendant Ahmad Jabr was 
in the Prosecution Office building to be questioned in the case, we 
summoned him. When brought face to face with the defendant Husam Muhammad 
Khamis Nuwayr, defendant Ahmad Jabr confirmed that he was the person he 
knew as 'Adil Anwar. Defendant Husam denied any connection with him. We 
decided then to ask him the following: 
[Question] What is your comment on defendant Ahmad Jabr's confessions, his 
recognition of you, and the details of your arrest? 
[Answer] What happened was that at the end of April I was performing the 
afternoon prayers at the Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani Mosque in Harun 
al-Rashid Street in Heliopolis. When I left the mosque, I bought the 
Al-Ahram al-Masa'i paper and began to read it. But I was arrested for no 
reason that I knew of. 
[Question] When and how did this happen? 
[Answer] I do not remember exactly when this happened but it was in the Harun 
al-Rashid Street in Heliopolis. 
[Question] What was the reason for your presence there at that time? 
[Answer] I was performing the afternoon prayers at the Jamal-al-Din 
al-Afghani Mosque. 
[Question] Who was with you at the time? 
[Answer] I was alone. 
[Question] What did you tell the person who arrested you? 
[Answer] We did not talk. 
[Question] What do you say about your admission in the record of your arrest 
that you had in the past organizational and ideological links with 
leading Islamic Group [IG] figures inside and outside the country? 
[Answer] I heard about Safwat 'Abd-al-Ghani because his name and photograph 
were frequently in the papers because he was a defendant in the al-Mahjub 
case who had escaped. His photograph was in the papers all the time. But 
I know nothing about Mamduh 'Ali Yusuf, 'Izzat al-Salamuni, Usamah 
Siddiq, or any of these names at all. 
[Investigator] The record of your arrest also said that you had ties with
leader 
'Izzat al-Salamuni, who asked you to recruit new members and put you in 
charge of organizing the IG's actions in the 'Ayn Shams area. The record 
also said that leader Safwat 'Abd-al-Ghani asked you to help 'Izzat 
al-Salamuni manage the IG's organizational work in Cairo city. 
The record of your arrest said that leader Mamduh 'Ali Yusuf asked you 
to travel to Asyut to obtain and bring back the automatic rifles which 
were used in the assassination of [Former People's Assembly Speaker] Dr. 
Rif'at al-Mahjub. 
The record also said that, following the assassination of Dr. al-Mahjub 
and the arrest of the perpetrators, you went to live in the apartment of 
defendant Ahmad 'Abd-al-Fattah Sayyid 'Uthman in the Bulaq al-Dakrur area 
until you subsequently managed to escape. 
It said too that you were responsible for protecting defendant Tal'at 
Yasin Hammam when he went out to call the IG leaders abroad. You were 
also responsible for the exchange of the organization's messages 
containing Tal'at Yasin Hammam's instructions to defendant Muhammad 
Fawzi. Hammam also asked you to hide a quantity of copper strips that 
were used in the explosions and which you received from him in defendant 
Ahmad 'Abd-al-Fattah's apartment in al-Zaytun. Tal'at Yasin also asked 
you to hand over these strips to defendant 'Ali Sirhan. He asked you to 
hand over a quantity of explosives to defendants Ahmad 'Abd-al-Fattah, 
Hasan Salih, and Hasan Hamid and to order them to use these explosives in 
the attacks on police officers and banks. The record of your arrest said 
that you took responsibility for manufacturing the explosive devices 
following the arrest of defendant Ahmad 'Abd-al-Fattah. You moved 21 hand 
grenades, 20 kgs of TNT, and some of the organization's papers from its 
hideout in al-Zaytun to the Kafr al-Shurafa' area. 
The firm reply to all these charges was the same: No. 

ASSASSINATION OF A MAJOR GENERAL [subhead] 

The investigations can possibly be said to have included the history of 
all the bloody events in Egypt since the death of Dr. al-Mahjub until the 
arrest of the defendants in the Arab Albanians case. 
'Isam Shu'ayb, who joined the IG in the 1980s, continued his confessions 
before the Higher State Security Prosecution Office. These confessions 
accurately highlighted roles that had remained mysterious in a number of 
violent incidents in Egypt over the past 12 years. His confessions 
touched on a number of political and security figures who were closely 
watched by the IG throughout these years. Its attempts to assassinate 
them ended in failure for one reason or another. 
The investigator asked the defendant the following at the start: 
[Question] What was your partners' role in watching these figures as reported 
in the memorandum of the State Security Intelligence service? What was 
their specific role in the attacks on tourists in the Pyramids area? 
[Answer] Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim's usual role was to provide security backup. 
He stood at the point that controlled the site we had under surveillance. 
Shaykh Yasir Sidqi's role was to implement the action. In this incident, 
he stood on the safety island in the middle of the road near a park and 
at a distance of around 25 meters from me so that he could point out to 
me the bus when it arrived. The signal was for him to put his hand on his 
head. 
[Question] What weapons did each of you carry? 
[Answer] Shaykh Yasir did not have any weapons. I and Shaykh Ibrahim carried 
a bundle of explosives. 
[Question] On which part of the bus did you throw the explosive device? 
[Answer] At the windows in the middle of the right hand side of the bus. 
[Question] What were you wearing? 
[Answer] Shaykh Yasir was wearing light-colored jeans and a blue jacket. This 
jacket is in my house in al-'Imraniyah. I was wearing a loose 
light-colored jacket over a vest. I do not remember exactly whether it 
was a vest or a shirt. I wore checkered trousers and sports trainers. As 
far as I can remember, Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim wore light-colored jeans, 
a black leather jacket, and a koufiyah [traditional Arab headdress]. 
[Question] What was the aim of the attack? 
[Answer] To harm the tourist sector. 
[Answer] Did you not check the explosive material inside this device? 
[Answer] It was black gunpowder. 
[Question] How do you justify the killing of tourists? 
[Answer] In the first place, tourists come to Egypt and teach our sons vice 
and corruption and spread AIDS. Our youths were not like that but have 
become delinquent as a result of tourism, which brings in big revenues 
for the infidel regime. Therefore damaging it means exerting pressure on 
the regime. 
[Question] Does the shari'ah permit the killing of tourists as you say? 
[Answer] I am not well versed in shari'ah. There are brother scholars who 
know the details of the shari'ah and we trust them. At any rate, these 
are things I do not know much about. 
[Question] What were your detailed activities in the acts of monitoring, 
surveillance, and assassination? 
[Answer] First of all, I did not have any role in the assassination actions. 
My monitoring and surveillance role was very limited. There were several 
levels in this action. It started with the obtaining of information, then 
came a normal watch, and this was followed by meticulous and extensive 
surveillance. I never did such a thing with anyone. 
[Question] Which figures did you help keep watch on, as you said in your 
remarks? 
[Answer] I only provided information about them. It concerned just one 
person, a fellow called Majdi who lived in the Pyramids area. He and his 
brothers had a sign saying Lawyers, but he was in fact an officer at the 
Liman Turah Prisons. I knew because I worked in an air conditioning 
workshop and used to see him. I got my information from my presence in 
the area and reported his description to Shaykh Muhammad. He was 1.73 
meters tall, well built, black and white hair, a moustache, and he had a 
swarthy complexion. 
[Question] How did you know whether any of these figures were in their houses? 
[Answer] By the guards around the house. I started asking questions as soon 
as I saw guards and hence knew the identity. 
[Question] Did you report this information in writing? 
[Answer] No. It was all done orally. 
[Question] When did you report the information you collected about the figures 
you have mentioned? 
[Answer] It was in early 1993 for the brigadier general living in Faysal. I 
reported on his physical build, rank, and residence. I know how to reach 
his house but I do not know the name of the street. As to the senior rank 
(he meant the senior officer) in al-Rawdah, that was done during Ramadan 
of the same year. I also passed information at that time about the writer 
or journalist in al-Manil (...). I obtained the information about Maj. 
Gen. Mansur al-'Aysawi (a prominent security official who was director of 
security in Cairo and then governor of al-Minya in Upper Egypt) when I 
was in his place of residence. Doormen, people who live on other floors, 
and shop owners usually talked about people like him who lived in the 
same area. I recall that it was Shaykh Yasir who told me that Maj. Gen. 
al-'Aysawi was living in that area. I confirmed this from the doormen. At 
the same time, there were guards in the al-Qasr al-'Ayni Street. Shop 
owners and sandwich or fruit juice sellers there talk without anyone 
asking them. I knew from their remarks and gossip that the education 
minister and a judge in the military courts who sentence the bothers to 
death lived in that building. One month later, I reported on the major 
general in the square near the Sheraton Hotel. I reported this 
information to Shaykh Muhammad Mustafa, who had asked me to report to him 
any information I could get about any police officer so as to assist in 
his assassination. 
[Question] Who were the targeted figures when your activities went beyond the 
level of just reporting information to the higher level of a normal 
watch? 
[Answer] There were three persons: An officer called 'Isam Fathi, an informer 
in the State Intelligence Service called Nafadi, and Maj. Gen. Ra'uf 
Khayrat. 
[Question] What happened when you watched and monitored Maj. Gen. Ra'uf 
Khayrat? 
[Answer] I want to say something important first about these three figures. 
Muhammad Mustafa or Yasir Sidqi used to tell me to go and watch this 
person in this area or to go and watch a police officer. They were the 
source of the information, not I. I agreed to meet Sayyid in the al-Haram 
Street where Maj. Gen. Ra'uf lived and to walk to his house. I and Sayyid 
stayed together during most of the watch. The first time we went there, 
it was noontime and we did not find him. I said to Sayyid: Come, let us 
go and perform the noon prayers, eat, and then come back. When we 
returned, I knew from the number of guards that he was back. Thus we knew 
that he would be at home between 1300 and 1400 hours. To obtain more 
information, I said to Sayyid: Let us come here early in the morning so 
as to learn more about his schedules. Sayyid continued to go there in the 
mornings, while I went in the afternoons. Sayyid knew that he left the 
house in the morning at 0800. But he could not come into the main street 
directly because there was no opening to it. He had to leave from the 
back, turn around and enter al-Jizah. He rode in a white Peugeot. That 
was all the information we could collect about him, and we reported it to 
Muhammad Mustafa. 
[Question] How many times did you watch him? 
[Answer] Every day, but we never stayed there all day. If we did not happen 
to see him, we would continue to walk. But the watch went on daily for 
more than 10 days. 
[Question] What means did you use to watch him? 
[Answer] We went in person and saw with our own eyes. 
[Question] Were there any reasons why you should have been in the surveillance 
area? 
[Answer] There was a real estate agent in the area whose name I do not 
recall. I used to go and sit next to him to ask about the price of 
apartments and shops. He wore glasses, a gilbab, and a turban and was 
over 50 years old. There was one person selling Pepsi at the street 
corner. I and Sayyid used to buy Pepsi from him. There was a wall there 
on which we sat to drink the Pepsi. That was on the other side of 
al-Haram Street just before the building where Maj. Gen. Ra'uf Khayrat 
lived. We did so so as not to arouse suspicion.