Memoirs From The Prison And Trial By Dr. Aymen Al-Zawahiri, The Al-Qaedah Leader
16 February 2011
By Al-Ikhwah Al-Mujahidun
Fruits of the assassination of Sadat
One of the most important fruits of the Assassination
of Sadat in my mind and Allah knows better, that it
proved that the people of Egypt revolted on their
Pharaoh and killed him. This is a serious precedent in
the Egyptian and Arab history, this boldness in
confronting the corrupt enemies of Islam which
wouldn't happened if there wasn't a wide spread
Islamic awakening, and spread of the correct concept
of Aqeeda, and concepts of Wala wa Bara, Hakimya, and
the spread of the soul of jihad amidst the Ummah.
It was a historical event in all
standards, and the events proved that, since the
events of jihad escalated with the killing of Anwar
Al-Sadat an explosive escalation, and was a beginning
for a new era and a new phrase that carry its burden
the new generation. And I used to tell my companions
in prison that killing Sadat was huge historical event
in all what that word meant, and if all of us went
martyrs, or spent the rest of our lives in prison in
exchange for this event we would be winners.
But unfortunately a number from those
who accompanied me in prison weren't psychologically
prepared to accept such opinions and views, their
moral and psychological capabilities were very much
lesser than that, I used to see from my closely living
with them the seeds of something plagued like licorice
in the souls, which was said by Essam Al-Qamari
rahimaullah in the phrase (The New Ekwan).
Unfortunately the late events proved the correctness
of the early perceptions, and that has another talk.
Those were similar to a small child
who was given a heavy sharp sword, and he was weak to
carry it, so how could he fight with it? He tried to
show firmness and appear like that for a while, then
he in the end surrendered and sold his sword to his
enemy to his enemy with the cheapest price a few
coins, and in such low estimation did he hold him. And
decided in exchange for it small crumbs from the
crumbs of the world, to withdraw and apologize, and
let go of the reason of his might, terror, and
intimidate his enemies, he withdrew in exchange for a
small ascetic world, that millions enjoy with better
than it without withdrawing, but he inside him is a
small child, behaving as a child, who prefers a piece
of sweet over a heavy machine.
These images repeat in all experiences
and the big human epics in the history of mankind, and
who observes carefully in the Holy Kuran finds the
description of these sicknesses and shortcomings in
several places in the Surahs of Al-Ahzab and Al-Tawba.
The Truth says:
(Behold! a party among them said: "Ye
men of Yathrib! Ye cannot stand (the attack)!
Therefore go back!" and a band of them ask for leave
of the Prophet, saying "Truly our houses are bare and
exposed", though they were not exposed: they intended
nothing but to run away 13 - And if an entry had
been effected to them from the sides of the (City),
and they had been incited to sedition they would
certainly have brought it to pass, with none but a
brief delay! 14 - And yet they had already
covenanted with Allah not to turn their backs, and a
covenant with Allah must (surely) be answered for 15
-) Surah Al-Ahzab Then the truth mentioned after that
the characteristics of the people of the truth, the
Best of speakers said:
(Ye have indeed in the Messenger of
Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for anyone
whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who
engages much in the praise of Allah 21 - When the
Believers saw the Confederate forces, they said: "This
is what Allah and His Messenger had promised us, and
Allah and his Messenger told us what was true." And it
only added to their faith and their zeal in obedience
22 - Among the Believers are men who have been true
to their Covenant with Allah: of them some have
completed their vow (to the extreme) and some (still)
wait: but they have never changed (their
determination) in the least: - 23 - That Allah may
reward the men of Truth, for their Truth and punish
the Hypocrites if that be His Will, or turn to them in
Mercy: for Allah is Oft- Forgiving, Most Merciful.
24 -) Surah Al-Ahzab In the same context the person
feels the extent of disability and refraction when
Omar Al-Tilmasani was asked in an interview with (Al-Musawar)
about the killing of Sadat, he answers:
"The religious belief is far from
these crimes".
The torture The reaction of the
government on the events was brutal in its severity
and method.
And the cycle of torture and
harassment began in its full speed once again, to
write a new bloody chapter in the modern history of
the Islamic movement in Egypt.
The cycle of torture and brutality in
its spin, broke bones, stripped skins, electrified the
nerves and took lives.
It was dirty in its methods because it
took the insult of the religion and Lord, detention of
woman, sexual assault, calling men with the name of
women, forced starvation and bad food, cutting water,
banning visits were common methods to humiliate the
detainees.
I found on the wall of one of the
cells of the Al-Qala prison a verse of poetry carved
in the wall that says:
Life would be good if he were a stone
which cannot feel the events that happen to him
I also found a carved phrase that
says:
"If the woman falls she becomes a
prostitute, and if man falls he becomes a policeman".
This government thought like the ones
that presided it that with torture it will crush the
raising Islamic resistance, but even if it took
sayings through torture, it has lost an immeasurable
lose, since most who passed through this brutal
experience entered the prison asking for one revenge,
and gets out demanding two revenges: a general revenge
against the criminals hostile to Islam in the service
of America and Israel, and a personal revenge against
who tortured him, and tortured his brothers, and
assaulted his sanctuaries.
This torture left in the memory deep
trenches that won't submerge, and in the conscience
bloody wounds that won't heal, and in the soul a
burning coal that won't quench only with punishment
with Allah's will and might.
It's a living renewed revenge waiting
for the chance to fulfill it even if a long time
passed, and that would be inherited generation after
generation.
The cycle of torture this time was
different than its predecessors from two aspects: it
span and is still spinning to this day without stop,
also it swallowed hundreds thousands of victims from
the assassination of Sadat until now.
The government is completely quite
about the real number of detainees in Egypt, and I'll
mention more about this Insha'Allah when I talk
about the Egyptian regime.
The farce of the prosecution
investigation
The state security and military
intelligence transmitted the accused to the civil and
military prosecution. And the investigations of the
prosecution was another chapter from the chapters of
this farce, since the prosecution used to leak the
records of the investigation to the intelligence
officers to return to the accused, and to make them
accountable for what they say, then they indoctrinate
them once again what they have to say.
I remember that once I asked head of
the prosecution Mahmud Massoud who conducted must of
the investigation with me -:
Is it not my right to call an
attorney?
He answered with mockery:
Who is this attorney who wants to be
detained with you in prison?
But the confidence of state security
prosecution this time was shaken in the system, since
it saw with its own eyes the intensity of the conflict
between the system and it enemies, that's why it
ensured that its conniving with the intelligence won't
implicate it solid materials that would be used with
against it, is the situation change and the system
falls.
It happened that I mentioned to head
of the prosecution Mahmud Massoud the types of torture
that I'm exposed to and the types of torture that I
see happen to others in the Al-Qala prison, and that
my sayings in these investigations are result this
torture and coercion, and that they review with me the
investigations in the Al-Qala prison, I described for
him my injures in detail and the instruments used to
induce it and the details about it, and that I demand
to be presented to a coroner to prove these injures,
so he ended my investigation quickly after he recorded
my sayings, then he ordered that I be transmitted to
the coroner.
When I returned to the Al-Qala prison
I was summoned by brigadier-general Mohammed Abdul
Fatah Omar and lieutenant colonel Mohsen Hafzi, and
they threatened me to open a case against me about
spying for Iran, and that they have information that I
visited Iran and trained for espionage there, but I
denied that completely, so responded that although
they know that I'm a spy they don't want to raise that
matter for fear of my reputation, so that I won't be a
disgrace for my children after my execution!! That's
why I have to so that they don't open they spying
case against me go again to the prosecution, to
change what I said in my previous record, and Mohammed
Abdul Fatah Omar said to me: I was arranging for you
to get a pardon from the president of the republic,
but to threw sand in the food, that I was cooking for
you! And don't imagine that our finger is under your
tooth! You even if you were released will be on the
head of the list of arrests in every time. So I was
surprised for horror, that was in the hearts of those
criminals from my sayings and me the weak person,
which all the causes of power were taken from him
except the depending on Allah and the longing for his
mercy, so this encouraged me to continue to expose
their torture to the Muslims, and realized that the
regime despite of its tyranny isn't confident from its
future, and is shivering from the detained captives,
after the huge events that it witnessed.
After one day lieutenant colonel
Mohsen Hafzi summoned me, and said to me:
We are the state, and you are against
the state, beware from fighting the state, I don't
want you to wrap the rope of the gallows around your
neck, but you have to change your sayings in the
previous record, and now (Mohammed Bay Taj)
will go with you to the state security intelligence
prosecution to change your sayings, and indeed major
Mohammed Taj to the office of the counselor Rajaa
Al-Arabi1, where he stressed that I have to change my
sayings, and from the office of Rajaa Al-Arabi they
took me through a door to an office the head of the
prosecution Mahmud Saied, who smiled with malignity,
and said:
Will you confess now
this time?
So I said to him:
The intelligence officer in the room
that I came from, has accompanied me to be sure that I
change my sayings, and they have confronted me in the
Al-Qala prison with the details in the previous
record, I'm an accused, and from my rights that is to
keep the confidentiality of the record, and the copies
of the record of the prosecution that you do with me
the intelligence officers in the Al-Qala prison
present it to me, and they threaten me to repeat the
torture and new accusations if I don't change my
sayings.
So he shivered horrified, and said
that his connection to the record ends with the end of
the investigation, and that he will submit it to the
secretary of the prosecution, and doesn't know what
will happen to it after that.
And went out quickly from the room and
returned accompanied with two counselors Mahir
Al-Jindi2 and Rajaa Al-Arabi, Mahir Al-Jindi tried to
show himself innocent, and said:
We get the records of the police, and
investigate what's in them.
While Rajaa Al-Arabi talked to me in a
demagogue way:
What Aymen they tortured me and they
beat me.
So I said to him:
I'm an accused and from my rights is
to keep the confidentiality of the investigation.
He said:
They know everything even the biggest
head in the state, as they know what you did, and they
know what we do. The important thing will you confess
no not?
I said: No.
So Mahmud Saied ordered to end the
investigation and return me to the Al-Qala prison.
It even reached that general military
prosecutor who conducted the investigation in the
assassination of Anwar Al-Sadat ignored his
responsibilities, and didn't go to the platform of the
military parade only after one whole day from the
incident, although the incident is completely in the
area of his responsibility, since the killed is the
Supreme Commander-in-chef, the attackers are from the
armed forces, and the incident happened on a military
ground, but he observed the results that followed the
earthquake that stroke the regime, so was in a state
of paralysis.
General military prosecutor was
waiting to see who will order him to investigate with
whom? And who will prosecute whom?
And from the jokes that colonel Mohsen
Al-Sarsawi the magistrate of the Torah receiving
prison at that time after the assassination of Sadat
and he is a model for the rider of the waves and
takers of opportunities who entered the ward of the
prison which has four floors and was full of political
detainees and shouted at them: (Brothers of struggle,
brothers strife, president Anwar Al-Sadat has been
killed).
The martial court
The military prosecutor to present the
accused in the incident of assassinating of Anwar
Al-Sadat to the martial court. And a martial court was
established headed by General Mohammed Samir Fazil.
And a new farce from the farces of thrusting the
secular military of the Egyptian army in crushing its
Muslim enemies began, after the Egyptian army turned
its back to Israel, and directed its weapons to its
people.
The martial trial was a repeated model
of the confrontations between the Islamic movement and
its Jihadi vanguard with all its purity, lucidity and
tender, and the secular military with all its falsity,
hypocrisy and corruption. The secular military claimed
democracy and rule of law, but the trial with the
consensus of all who watched it was silly badly
directed play for a ruling that was already prepared.
The secular military claimed that it
respects Islam, but this respect had in secularism one
meaning, which is using a class of Ulema for it to
justify it acts, and indeed since the court based its
ruling on the fatwa of sheikh Jad El-Haq the mufti
then, then Sheikh of Al-Azar later to slaughter the
mujahid youth.
The Great Jihad Case
I have mentioned previously what the
martial court did, while the civil prosecutor (state
security prosecution) after the end of its
investigation it transmitted to the judiciary 302
accused as being leaders in the Al-Jihad organization,
which is the case known as (the Great Jihad Case), the
largest case in the history of the Egyptian judiciary,
it also transmitted to the judiciary 187 accused of
being members of the Al-Jihad organization, and the
procedures of the two trials began after about two
years from the killing of Sadat.
Regarding the trial of (the Great
Jihad Case) it was unique in its type full of events
and surprises, but the most important of them were two
events in this trials were the reciting of Dr. Omar
Abdurrahman for his famous statements for over three
days, in addition to the historical testimony that was
given by sheikh Salah Abu Ismail rahimahullah.
Regarding the two surprises in it were
that the judge discovered that the state security were
spying on him and on his consultations with the two
judges participating with him, and proved that in the
case papers, while the biggest surprise was the ruling
in the case, and it's whereases were stronger and more
important from the ruling.
And Dr. Omar Abdurrahman recorded his
statements later in his book (AWord of Truth).
In these statements Dr. Omar presented
the issue of ruling with the Sharia and doing jihad
for that with its detailed evidence from the Book and
Sunnah, and unanimity of the Ulema of the Ummah, and
refuted the pleading of the prosecution and Al-Azar
report which it used. And this testimony was a danger
on the legal status of Dr. Omar Abdurrahman, since it
presented evidence for the support of Dr. Omar of the
jihad to
Dr. Omar Abdurrahman
djkjgfg establish the
Sharia, and the judge warned him that his speech might
be threat to him, and that the speech of the attorneys
is the speech of the agent from the inherent, and he
can withdraw his words, or his words will be taken.
But Dr. Omar Abdurrahman, insisted to
defend the cause of Islam in the trial, even if that
lead to is conviction.
He even kept the judge in the place of
the accused and made his carry the burden of the
unjust that the he is imposing on the Muslims, and
warned him from the torment of Allah and His
punishment, and called him to rule with the Sharia,
and warned him from the consequence of leaving ruling
with it.
The diligence of Dr. Omar Abdurrahman
that this was an opportunity to convey the issue of
governance of what Allah has revealed mustn't pass,
also these statements were the best defense that the
brothers could present, especially those who were
expecting to get a death penalty, by manifesting the
just of their cause and nobleness of their goal.
And indeed, the judge didn't issue any
death penalty in this case, and used the extenuating
circumstances based on the noble purpose and honorable
goal of the accused, as he mentioned in the whereases
of his ruling.
Regarding the sentences of the court
it came surprising to the government and the security
agencies and the prosecution, since the court didn't
issue any death penalty, and acquitted 194 of the
accused from the total of 302 accused.
And the whereases of his ruling were
more important and serious than the ruling:
- The court recognized that Egypt
wasn't ruled with the Sharia.
- It recognized that the ruling with
the Sharia is an obligation and it is the wish of
every Muslim.
- It also recognized that the Egyptian
constitution and laws contradicted with the rules of
Islam.
- It acknowledged that violating Islam
is wide spread in the Egyptian society under the
auspices of the law.
- It acknowledged of the physical
torture that happened to the accused, which lead to
permanent disabilities for some of them, and demanded
to transmitting the officials accused of this with
torture for investigation.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper claimed in
the distorted truncated first edition of this book
that it published which got its copy from the
American intelligence that I praised the Counselor
Abdul Gaffar head of the court, and said: that his
sentences were fair to the Islamists! It said:
"While Al-Zawahiri condemned in his
book the martial court, and considered it a model for
of the confrontations between the Islamists and what
he called the secular
Counselor Abdul
Gaffar military,
but he praised Counselor Abdul Gaffar head of the
court saying: That his sentences were fair to the
Islamists".
This is one of the many allegations
that the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat crammed in the context that
it reported from me3, God forbid that I praise a
secular judge who rules with the manmade law, and
describe it as fair, and Allah Subhanah wa Tala said:
(and whoever did not judge by what Allah revealed,
those are they that are the unjust) 44 Surah Al-Maeda.
The secular judge is unjust even if he was right,
because he doesn't recognize the rule of Allah
Subhanah wa Tala.
The Ustaz martyr as we expect him to
be Sayd Qutb rahimahullah:
"Certainly "the religion of Allah" is
the ruling of what Allah revealed and nothing else.
That is the manifestation of the authority of Allah.
The manifestation of the governance of Allah. The
manifestation of La Ilah Ila Allah.
It's inevitable: the inevitable
inseparability between "the religion of Allah" and
"the rule with what Allah revealed" isn't established
from that what Allah has revealed is better from what
the humans make for themselves from methods, laws,
regulations and status. This is one of the reasons of
this inevitability. That's not the first and major
reason. The first and major reason, the first and
major base in the inevitable inseparability is that
the rule with what Allah revealed is recognition of
the divinity of Allah, and denial of this divinity and
its characteristic.
The is "Islam" in its linguistic
meaning: "to surrender", and in its conceptual meaning
as it was mentioned in the religions .. surrender of
Allah .. peeling from the claims of divinity with him,
and claiming the fundamental characteristic of
divinity, which is authority and governance, and the
right of recruitment of the worshipers, and making
them surrender to the Sharia and law.
Thus it's not enough that the humans
adopt to themselves laws that are similar to the
Sharia of Allah. Or even the Sharia of Alah itself in
context, if they attribute it to themselves, and kept
their signs on it, and didn't revert it to Allah, and
didn't implement it in the name of Allah, submitting
to His authority, admitting His divinity, and His
singularity with this divinity. The singularity that
peels the slave from the right of authority and
governance, except in implementing the Sharia of
Allah"4.
But the fairness makes me to mention
that the Counselor Abdul Gaff Mohammed was brave when
he refused the reports of the state security
intelligence, and when he refused to answer the
invitation to meet the justice minister during him
viewing the case, he even refused to answer him on the
phone, and didn't attend one of the court sessions
protesting for the attempt of the justice minister to
interfere in the case, and the sheikh Omar Abdurrahman
may Allah release him from captivity mention this
in his statements during the court, he was courageous
when he recorded all the sayings of the accused one by
one about the torture that they were exposed to in the
beginning of the trial, he was courageous when he
ordered all the accused to be presented to the
forensic to examine the injuries from the torture, he
was courageous when he expelled the officers from the
state security intelligence from the courtroom, but
they infiltrated to the balconies overlooking the
courtroom, and put in some of them in the uniform of
the court guards, he was courageous when he gave a
chance for Dr. Omar Abdurrahman to recite his
historical statements over three days, he was
courageous when he agreed to summon sheikh Salah Abu
Ismail rahimahullah for testimony, he was courageous
when he gave a chance for the accused tens of times to
recite words in the beginning of court hearings, he
was courageous when he issued a ruling which was
similar to a slap for the ruling regime and its
organs, he was courageous when he approved the
dangerous facts which we mentioned previously in the
ruling whereases, and he was courageous when he
demanded from the prosecution in his ruling to
open an investigation about the torture that the
accused were exposed to.
Abdul Ghaffar Mohammed was courageous
in all that, and was challenging the regime, swimming
against the stream, exposing himself to problems and
difficulties, at a time when all the organs of the
regime were preparing itself to have revenge from the
Muslim youth in this serious case, that case that the
general prosecution engaged in it - as usual
disgracefully with the executioners.
But this doesn't make him a just
judge, not from the reference of legislation and not
from implementation of the rulings.
Regarding the reference of
legislation: I have explained that the secular judge
who rules with the secular law and in the transcript
of the Koran is unjust, Fasiq and Kaffir.
Abdul Ghaffar Mohammed carries the
burden of the rules that he issued to imprison 109
Muslim with the most honorable accusation which is
jihad for the sake of Allah, even if he used commuted
conditions in these sentences taking in account the
noble cause and the honorable purpose, as he mentioned
in the ruling whereases, even if he didn't issue any
ruling with death penalty in the case.
And it doesn't drop the responsibility
from Abdul Ghaffar Mohammed what he approved in the
ruling whereases that the court is obliged to rule
with the Sharia and forced by the law to rule with the
secular law. This talk has no weight in the balance of
Sharia, because he wasn't compiled a worthy compulsion
in the Sharia, so he can claim that he was compelled!.
Regarding the implementation of the
rulings: there were many criticizes about the rulings,
from theme were that Abdul Ghaffar Mohammed in many
times based his ruling on the records of arrest and
records of guidance that he certainly knows that they
are based on information taken by compulsion and under
torture, and from them is that many times he based his
ruling on investigation records before the prosecution
that he certainly knows that they were held under
conditions of horror and panic with the collusion of
the prosecution with the intelligence to repeat the
torture of accused.
An example for that what one of the
honorable brothers told me that he confessed in detail
in the prosecution, because the torture that he was
exposed to and the treatment that he found in prison
convinced him fully that he certainly will be killed
by the police. He mentioned to me that for example
when he was deported to the Torah receiving prison,
the administration of the prison what is known as
(receiving party), where they were kept for hours
beaten when they were passing between two rows of
soldiers, and that the soldiers were beating him with
the iron handcuffs, which convinced him that they will
certainly kill him.
From the most prominent examples for
the violation of the many rulings of Abdul Ghaffar
Mohammed for the bases of the manmade laws is his
sentence on the martyr as we expect him to be the
hero Essam Al-Qamari rahimahullah with two sentences
one with ten years and the other five years, for his
conviction in joining the Al-Jihad organization and
resisting the police. Despite that the papers don't
have any conclusive evidence for the conviction of
Essam Al-Qamari rahimahullah.
Some might feel whom don't weight
the matter according to the balance of the Sharia
sympathy with Abdul Ghaffar Mohammed, but the matter
is bigger than that and more serious, it's the matter
of supporting the regimes that is fighting Islam, with
the laws and regulations that contradict with the
Sharia.
And there is no excuse for Abdul
Ghaffar Mohammed the rumors and I don't know how
authentic is it his saying that is narrated from
him, that if he wasn't the one who didn't rule in this
case another judge might have ruled in the case who
would have severely punished the youth.
After Abdul Ghaffar Mohammed
retirement he worked as an attorney, and began to
defend the Muslim youth in the courts, did he repent
from his past as a secular judge who ruled with
manmade law? And where are the rights of the oppressed
sentenced??
Based on ruling of the court the
prosecution began an investigation in the torture that
was proved in the court, and that was a manifestation
for the trembling of the government before the rising
Jihadi stream, and a manifestation for the eagerness
of Hosni Mubarak to rescue himself, even if that lead
to sacrificing more than 50 officers from the police
and intelligence.
The prosecution began a wide
investigation about torture, and summoned those
accused in the Great Jihad Case for investigating with
them about the incident of torture which they were
exposed to, the police tried to prevent the repeated
prosecutor's call for me to through the police
station, but it Allah wanted that one of the brothers
to testify about the torture incidents, and when I
came before the investigating Counselor, he told me
that I'm personally wanted to stand before him in the
incidents of torture related to me, and took out from
his desk a pack of call orders related to me, and
wondered how I didn't answer them, but I told him that
none of them reached me, and that's from the cunning
of the police.
The investigator set a date to
investigate with me about the torture, and I went,
during the investigation I told the investigator:
What's the use of this investigation? You are
investigating about incidents that happened from
nearly three years, and the regime is still the same
regime, and the torture is still going, so what's the
use of all this, so he answered me with the expertise
of an experienced veteran, he said to me: This is the
first time in the history of Egypt where the men of
the regime are trialed during the same regime, so this
is an opportunity take it. And he was honest with me
that as long as the governments practice these methods
the violence will not stop in Egypt.
And indeed with the grace of Allah
then the sacrifices of the mujahedeen the regime of
the brutal boastful arrogant ended in Egypt, and came
the dodger regime which shows innocence giving a
margin of criticizing and freedom, and this was an
important step on the road, which was only achieved
with blood and sacrifices, and it's also a lesson to
the mujahedeen that they don't allow the regime to
severely punishment them in the darkness.
After I came out from prison the
prosecution forced on me a rule of compulsory
surveillance, which is a bad system implemented on the
released thieves and criminals, where they are kept
under police surveillance, and due to this system the
police have the right to arrest the one under
surveillance or make him stay in his home from sunset
to rising, and the one under surveillance has to check
at the police station every week, and he should leave
his city or his residence only with the police
permission.
Which means he still in a prison, and
I have discovered another conspiracy from the
prosecution in its complicity with the intelligence to
limit the movement of those released, and discovered
that the ruling of the court doesn't include this
ruling, and discovered also that the accusation that I
was condemned in which is having weapons and
ammunition without license doesn't fall under the
system of compulsory surveillance, this made me read
in the books of law about this system and discovered
the most important in the topic that this system was
imposed by the British occupation on Egypt to face the
mujahedeen and those who resist it, so I realized that
these are students of those, who still take the same
place.
Beside the system of compulsory
surveillance the state security intelligence imposed
on me a system of covert surveillance for 24 hours,
but I with the grace of Allah turned the table on
them, I through a system of bribery, I created with
Allah's power and force a system of surveillance on
them, so my news went to them, and theirs to me.
Despite of this siege, I decided not
to stop resisting, so I began a campaign of public
defamation of the system, and started to provide the
opposition newspapers with the incidents of the
torture, also I moved the case of the collusion of the
doctors of the prison in torturing the detainees in
the prosecution
and the doctors' syndicate. It
happened once when I was photo copying the news about
the torture from the newspapers in a simple shop
which his owner has a copier the store's owner asked
me with the simple Egyptian encroachment: If all this
happened to you, why don't you take revenge from those
who did that to you? I answered him that was part of
the battle, while our revenge from them we will take
it with our own hands Insha'Allah. And I hope that I
with the help of Allah was truthful to him.
Taha Al-Botli A
magnanimity from Upper Egypt
Taha Al-Botli is a name that can never
be erased from my memory. I still remember his
spontaneity, simplicity, his humor, loud laughter, his
service to everyone and his original Upper Egypt
dialect, but all this hid behind the tragedy of Taha
Mahmud Hussein Hassanian Al-Bolti from Tama in the
Sohaj province.
A story from the millions of the
agonizing stories in agonizing Egypt, that is weakened
with the unjust, cruelty and tyranny on the simple and
weak. Taha was in his mid thirties when he entered
prison and this was funny and heartrending tragedy
from the tragedies of Egypt.
Taha had finished his long compulsory
serviced in the Egyptian army, were he served in the
Special Forces during the war of attrition then in the
war of 1973 October, then he worked an clerk in the
local council in Tama, and joined the National Party
(the party of the government) and was one of its
activists, and like all the lost youth didn't find
anything wrong or disgrace in using Hashish, and due
to what Allah has granted him from body power and
athlete structure, he used train karate in one of the
sport clubs, and from here the tragedy began.
The state security intelligence
received information after Sadat assassination
that one of those suspected to be a member of the
Islamic Group who is a student in the engineering
faculty and in his twenties, is training some of the
youth on karate in Tama, and orders were issued to the
police station to arrest this suspects.
The informants of the police didn't
find a trainer expect Taha Al-Botli despite of the
complete difference between his personality and the
personality of the suspect, since the suspect was a
university student in his twenties, a bachelor, didn't
join the army and is a member of an Islamic Group,
Taha ended military service, didn't join the
university, a government employer, married, a member
of the National Party and wasn't religiously committed
in his behavior.
Despite all this he was arrested by
the police informants, who many of them joined him in
taking drugs, so that won't be accused with
shortening, and Taha journey of troubles began.
They told him that the issue was
simple, and would be solved in minutes in the police
station, and in the police station they told him that
the issue is simple and would be solved in the
directorate of security in the province capital, and
in the province capital they told him that the matter
is simple, and would be solved in Cairo, and the
journey of Taha Al-Botli to the Other World, which the
Egyptians call humorously: Behind the Sun.
They fabricated for him an
investigation record that his name even if it was Taha
Mahmud Hussein Hassanian Al-Bolti, he has a quartet
fame name, which doesn't have any link to his original
name that is the name of the wanted suspect.
This might be a silly joke to the one
who hears it for the first time, but its in Egypt
the Land of Wonders a very regular matter, where the
human being is only equal to the value of the ink that
the investigation record is written with.
While the rights of man and his
sanctities is for the Pashas and Baiks who still use
these titles to this day although they are canceled
formally but it's not for the other creatures that
are compiled in the name (the Egyptian people).
I remember that during my solitary
detention in the Al-Qala prison, that they brought a
pilot from the armed forces in the cell that was in
the front of me, for his relation with the martyr as
we expect him to be - Mohamed Abdel Salam Faraj
rahimahullah, and this pilot has told me that they
told him during the investigation with him: Do you
want to cooperate with us? So we can treat you like
humans (because he was an officer!), or you want us to
treat you as the rest of the creatures that are in the
prison!!
Let's return to Taha Al-Botli. Taha
Al-Botli passed through the full cycle of torture, and
because of his strong body structure they increased
the dose for him. Although they arrested the original
suspect, and despite that Taha met him after that in
prison, but the first stain of the police informants
in his area stuck to him, and Taha Al-Botli was
transferred to the high state security emergency
court, which was viewing the largest case in the
history of Egyptian judiciary, with an accusation that
he was from the leaders of the Jihad organization.
And in prison Taha awaked on the
reality of the regime and the reality of the National
Party, even on the reality of what is going in Egypt.
The appearance of Taha was different from most of the
accused, he was shaved and smoking, but he was loved
by everyone, for his manhood and manners, and so that
he doesn't bother anyone with his smoking, he lived in
a cell alone, but this cell was the meeting place of
everyone, for Taha's generosity and goodwill.
The intelligence which brought
disasters to Taha - tried to recruit him in prison, on
the grounds that he is not from the Islamic groups,
and they gave him promises, and asked him to grow his
birds, and stop smoking, to try to infiltrate the
prisoners, and report to their news to the prison
intelligence, but Taha with his manhood and
magnanimity, confronted them with bravery, and refused
to go to this way, and so that he won't be accused
from the rest of the prisoners of spying on them
refused to grow his bread, or stop smoking, this is
how he saw that with his simple thinking.
I knew Taha in prison, and I began to
know him closely, when I and Najih Ibrahim were
deported from the ward of experience in Luman Tora to
the ward of discipline for being accused to incite for
strike in the ward of experience, and since all the
cells were full, the only cell with capacity was the
cell of Taha, so we lived with him, and that was
Ramadan, the cells were closed on us as a punishment
for us, so Taha after the Iftar used to light a
cigarette, and keep his mouth on a small opening in
the door of the cell's door, and breathe the smoke of
the cigarette, so that he doesn't hurt our feelings.
And a friendship and brotherhood
developed between him and me, for what I have touched
in him from manhood, honesty and generosity, and his
cell was the tea meeting for many of his brothers, he
used to describe me as Sheikh Al-Arab, and he
disclosed to me when he was honest, that the prison
came as a punishment for him for his behavior before
prison, and that he has promised Allah Almighty to
repent from all that he did, and that he discovered
the reality of the National Party and the truth about
its quackery and hypocrisy, and regretted being a
member such parties.
In the first session of the court Taha
Al-Botli climbed the bars of the first cage of the
accused that stretched to the ceiling, and shouted to
the judge: I'm the oppressed Taha Mahmud Hussein
Hassanian Al-Bolti, I have fought in Sinai defending
Egypt, I want to be released I didn't do any crime.
I heard one of the brothers who didn't
know him, looked at him wondering, and said to another
brother: Why is this brother behaving like this? So
the other answered him with sadness: Let him do what
he wants.
Although the papers of his case didn't
have anything that convicts Taha Al-Botli expects that
silly investigation report, the judge didn't release
him, and was kept in prison for three years, hundreds
of kilometers away from his homeland.
And in court Taha asked two of his
cousins to testify, so they came to court confused, to
give the strangest testimony I have heard, they came
to testify that the one standing in front of them if
Taha Al-Botli and he doesn't have a fame name or any
other name .. the jokes of Egypt are heartrending!!
Taha Al-Botli was released from
prison, and I stayed after him in jail for less than a
month then I was released, and in the first visit of
Taha to Cairo after a short period from releasing me,
he went to the Luman Tora prison, and through his
relations with his guards he asked them to deliver his
greetings to his detained brothers and especially me,
so the sergeants on the gates of the prison told him
that I was released, and I was surprised that one of
the sergeants call me from a store next to the prison,
and tell me that Taha Al-Botli wants to speak to me,
and he said to me that I must meet you, and he came to
meet me in my clinic. And at that period I was under
surveillance as I have mentioned of two types: one
public (compulsory surveillance) and other a secret,
and I asked him:
Aren't you afraid from the consequence
of contacting me? But he told me with his spontaneity:
Uncle .. they hit the one-eyed on his eye, he said:
Nothing is different .. Nothing is different. I was
amazed with his constancy and magnanimity, and I told
him: Taha I'm under surveillance a forced surveillance
and my movement is limited, he said to me: Insha'Allah
this hardship will end, and you will travel, but if
you travel don't forget me, and try to get me a work
contract in Saudi Arabia, because of my hard
conditions.
I couldn't, and didn't provide that to
him, and now 25 years after this demand
I wish for Taha to forgive me, and
to realize that I didn't answer him eagerness for him,
so as not to renew his tragedy.
I remember that Taha had another
friend in the Torah receiving prison, I only remember
that his name was Uncle Ahmed, he was accused of with
weapons trade, and they used to meet in the court
sessions, and got along together since both of them
were from Upper Egypt, and both of them weren't a
member in an Islamic group, they used to go aside in
the rear passage of the cages of the accused, and talk
to each other.
Once after our return from the court
Taha told me: Do you know what Uncle Ahmed told me
today, I said: What did he say to you? He said: I was
surprised that Uncle Ahmed while I was sitting with
him and his eyes were full of tears, and he said to
me: Look at that officer that was assigned to guard
the court today; he tore my body with the whips during
the investigation.
And during their detention of Uncle
Ahmed a fisticuffs happened between some brothers and
one of the officers who aggressive to them, and
administration of Torah receiving prison decided to do
a punishment campaign (disturbing) to all the
detainees in the Torah receiving prison and the
intelligence of the prison summoned Uncle Ahmed, and
said to him that was are going now to subjugate these
detainees from the Islamic groups for a punishment
campaign for one month, and we want to move you from
here, because you aren't from them, so he said to the
officer with simplicity of the Upper Egyptian and his
cleverness and manners: Where will you deport me? The
officer said to him: Torah Farm prison, Uncle Ahmed
said to him: You mean you will move me from one prison
to another, we Bay see that it's flaw to leave
your people who you have ate with them bread and salt.
And Uncle Ahmed tolerated the campaign
of disturbing and punishment for one month, so that he
won't leave his brothers in prison in their hard
times!!
Can those who were taken by the stream
of agreements, renunciations, and count the gains and
losses, and went with the American globalization,
reconciled with the big criminals and flirting with
the scoundrels from the executioners, learn something
from these values and merits?
Fathi Radwan Gratitude in the time
of ungratefulness Ustaz Fathi Radwan rahimahulllah was
from the leaders of National Party that was
established by Mustafa Kamel rahimahulllah, which was
a party that viewed nationalism as belonging to the
state of Islam which means the Islamic Khilafah, and
Mustafa Kamel successor Mohammed Farid rahimahulllah
the author of the book (History of the Glorious
Ottoman state) who said in it about the Abbasid state
in Baghdad:
Fathi Radwan
"From that time Islam didn't have a
great state that defends its land and gathers it
sundries. Even its unity was lost and every ruler
declared his independence with what was assigned to
him from provinces and territories, the situation
continued on this pattern until Allah set for Islam
the establishment of the Glorious Ottoman state, so it
combined under its banner most of the Islamic land,
and opened many territories, which didn't know before
that the honorable religion, and returned to Islam its
strength, and raised its word between mankind"5.
That's why the National Party was
always close to the Islamic stream. Ustaz Fathi Radwan
was one of those who opposed Sadat, and he arrested
him in the detention campaign which he did in December
1981, and he said about him with his exaggerated
mockery: The man who kept deceiving us for 70 years!!
And this wasn't the first time for Ustaz Fathi Radwan
to be arrested, but at this time he was over 70 years.
Hosni Mubarak released Ustaz Fathi Radwan among those
he released after the killing of Anwar Al-Sadat.
Ustaz Fathi Radwan volunteered to
plead for me and Dr. Salah Mayhoob6 in the Al-Jihad
case, and he was the third attorney to plead for me
after the two Ustazs Mahfuz Azzam and Mohammed Emad
Al-Deen Al-Subki. Due to his close relationship with
my representative and uncle Ustaz Mahfuz Azzam7.
I still remember his unique plead.
Ustaz Fathi Radwan came to courtroom the day of the
plead, and age signs appeared on him, I looked to him
with wonder how was his condition with his slow steps
and old age in the hardships of detention?
When Ustaz Fathi Radwan began his
plead he turned to a talented orator, which made you
remember the first generation of Egyptian orators
before the status of the Arabian language
deteriorated, he was also unique as a skilled attorney
who knew the details of the case, who used to continue
his plead without looking at the papers or memoirs,
expect to quote from my sayings.
Ustaz Fathi Radwan spoke about the
substantive side in the case so he revealed clearly
the controversies and blunder in the evidences
presented in the case file, then he spoke about me, he
said he came to defend me voluntarily, because he only
pleads in the cases of opinion that he believes in his
equity, and that he doesn't know me personally, but he
knows my uncles from the Azzam family, even if the kin
doesn't raise a person, but his status is raised by
his deeds, but the Azzam family is one of two families
that he is honored to know in Egypt, while the other
is the Aloba family.
Then he spoke about the torture that
the accused were exposed to, so he said: I will not
tell the court about the torture that happened to
those youth, but I will speak about what happened to
me, and I'm a greybeard who is over 70 years, then the
court can realize what happened to those youth. And he
mentioned how that he despite of his old age was
thrown in to a cell alone without food or water for a
whole day, and that he saw the death of Abdul Azzim
Abu Atta8 in the prison hospital for preventing him
from his medicine.
Then Ustaz Fathi Radwan rahimahulllah
moved to speak about the general side of the plead, so
he spoke about the political conditions in the region,
to he got emotional, and shouted with a loud voice and
nearly cried: Why these events happen here, Lebanon
and Iran and everywhere? Because the giant is
awakening. It's Islam moving.
The judge said quickly to make him
calm down: Do you want to take a rest Ustaz Fathi? Do
you want us to bring you a chair? But he thanked him,
and ended his plead.
I was affected from this plead from a
person who didn't know me, who carries all these
feelings for the Islamic Jihadi awakening. So I asked
my family to send him a morale gift, and I choose the
book (The Patriotic trends in the Modern Arabic
literature) for Dr. Mohammed Hussein rahimahulllah9.
After Allah granted me release (from
prison), I went to Ustaz Fathi Radwan rahimahulllah in
his office to thank him, so received me with
generosity and warm, and said to me: He thanks me for
my gift that I sent to him, and that he considers that
just my thanks and gratitude to him is a great
appreciation to him, and that he in reality he is the
one who has to thank us, since Sadat had prepared the
receiving prison for those who opposed him, and he
intended to detain them in it, and not let them out
from it, and that you (he means Khalid Al-Islamboli
and his companions rahimahumallah and the mujaihd
youth) were the ones who got us out of prison.
I was very affected from this
gratitude from this skilled struggling politician, and
compared it unfortunately with leaders of Islamic
movements who Khalid Al-Islamboli and his blessed
companions rahimahumallah got them out from
prison, then they claimed that killing Sadat was a
crime, and that Sadat died as a martyr. Hen I compared
it with who beg from the government to release them my
showing their regret fir killing Sadat.
1 . He was assigned
after that a general attorney for the state security
prosecution, then a general attorney, but the assembly
of the court of
appeal refused to accept him as a judge for his bad
reputation.
2 . After that he was assigned governor for, and then
he was accused in a financial corruption.
3 . Also their replacement of the word martyrdom with
suicide, when mentioning the phrase the martyrdom
operations, and replacing the
word Jihadi with fundamentalism, when mentioning the
Jihadi movements, God forbid that I use the words
suicidal or fundamentalism, it
is the press trusteeship and the honor of the
profession, but where is the profession?
4 . In the Shadows of the Kuran - Surah Al-Maeda the
introduction part 2: page: 828 829.
5 . History of the Glorious Ottoman state, part 1,
page 114.
6 . Dr. Salah Mayhoob then was a mathematics teacher
in the science faculty of the Cairo University. He was
accused by the prosecution of being a member of the
organization which was headed by Ustaz Essam Al-Attar,
the former General Murshid of the Muslim Brotherhood
in Syria, whose name was also included in the list of
the accused in the Al-Jihad case!!
7 . Muntaseer Al-Zayat that he is my representative in
some cases, and I didn't assign anyone on my behalf
after I got out from prison except my uncle Ustaz
Mahfuz Azzam, who has an procuration from me.
Unfortunately Muntaseer Al-Zayat wasn't my friend, and
wasn't my companion in prison or outside it, and he is
not my representative. I didn't discuss with him or
shake hands with him any time in my life. And this
makes me notify the noble readers, that many things
are written about this simple slave, or said about
him, and I'm not obliged to respond to everything
said, or make myself an issue, but I notify and
emphasize that me being silence about what is said
doesn't mean that I approve it, (and my affair I leave
it to Allβh. Verily, Allβh is the All-Seer of (His)
slaves) 44 Surah Ghafir.
8 . Abdul Azzim Abu Atta was a general secretary for
the Party of Egypt that was established by Sadat, then
he disagreed with Sadat,
when Sadat decided to establish another party which is
the National Party, and neglected the Party of Egypt.
9 . I read this valuable very early may be in the
stage of High school, and I benefit from it, and the
reason of knowing it, is that one of the
brothers showed us a list of books as a curriculum
that were chosen by the martyred Ustaz as we expect
him to be Sayid Qutb for the
youth, this book was one of them.
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