Tourist killers unrepentant to the end

By Shaden Shehab

Saber and Mahmoud, aged 32 and 24 respectively, were caught at the scene of the broad daylight crime. They were sentenced to death by a military court on 30 October, after pleading guilty to the charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder and using violence and terrorism to undermine the national economy.

Six accomplices were convicted of providing the bus assailants with weapons or instructing them in how to make the primitive bombs they used in the attack. They were sentenced each to between one and 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour.

The two brothers showed no regrets as they walked to the gallows inside Cairo's Appeals Prison. Saber went first. He was brought out of his prison cell at 4am, clutching a copy of the Holy Qur'an. He told reporters what he had said already during the trial, that he was not a member of any terrorist group, although he sympathised with the ideology of the anti-government Jihad organisation.

Asked whether he regretted what he did, Saber responded: "I have no regrets because my action was Jihad for the sake of God." Reminded that the killing of innocent people was not Jihad, Saber said: "Yes, it is, because they are infidels."

At 5am, Saber was standing three metres away from the gallows room. As the executioner tied his hands behind his back, signs of great confusion appeared on his face. A court representative then read out the sentence passed against him, which President Hosni Mubarak confirmed on 18 December. The representative asked Saber whether he had a last-minute wish, to which he responded: "This is my destiny."

A preacher approached and asked Saber to repeat after him the Islamic credo that "there is no God but God and Mohamed is his prophet", which Saber did. But his legs could not support him and he had to be pushed literally to the gallows. The time was 5.30am.

Mahmoud came next. He was brought from his prison cell at 6am, also clutching a copy of the Qur'an and chanting religious slogans. He panicked and trembled as the executioner tied his hands behind his back, and shouted the Islamic credo. But, strangely enough, he refused to do the same, when he was asked by the preacher.

Due to his heavy weight, 100 kilogrammes, Mahmoud had to be seated as the noose was tied around his neck.

The two brothers, upon hearing the death sentence on 30 October, had hugged each other and repeatedly shouted Allahu Akbar (God is great). Saber told reporters that a death sentence was like "a feast day".

During the trial, Saber told reporters that his only regret was that the victims of the attack were not Jews. The attack, he said, was an act of revenge for a cartoon drawn by an Israeli woman depicting the Prophet Mohamed as a pig.

The underground Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya had hailed the two brothers as mujahideen and said they "acted in accordance with what their religion and belief dictate."

Immediately after the attack, authorities described Saber as mentally disturbed but the prosecutor-general later said that a "medical examination proved that he is responsible for his actions and is not mentally deranged." Saber himself told investigators that he was perfectly sane.

Saber had committed an earlier crime on 27 October 1993 when he opened fire on a group of foreigners inside the coffee-shop of the Semiramis Hotel. Two Frenchmen and an American were killed and another American, a Syrian and an Italian were wounded.

Saber was not put on trial at the time because an examination by psychiatrists at the government's Abbasiya Mental Hospital, under the supervision of hospital director Dr Sayed El-Qott, confirmed that he was schizophrenic. Saber later said that he bribed El-Qott to get him certified as mentally ill, a charge which El-Qott denied. Saber was confined to El-Khanka Mental Hospital as of 27 January 1994.

The investigation into the bus attack revealed that Saber used to bribe doctors and nurses to allow him to leave and return at will. The accused were put on trial before a military court. The head of the mental hospital, Nessim Abdel-Malek, was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined LE4,000 -- the estimated total of the bribes he received from Saber. Three male nurses were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment each, two to five years and three to three years. The three sentenced to 10 years were additionally ordered to pay fines ranging between LE1,000 and 3,600, also the estimated total of the bribes they received from Saber.

Dr El-Qott, head of the Health Ministry's mental hospitals, was found innocent along with a doctor at the El-Khanka hospital and a male nurse.

More than 120 prisoners await their fate on Egypt's death row. Thirty-nine of them have already exhausted all possible avenues of appeal. They include three women, 10 Islamists and an Israeli.

The Israeli, Youssef Tahan, is the longest-standing death row inmate. He was arrested in 1987 and sentenced to death for drug smuggling. He received an additional hard labour sentence for drug dealing while in prison.