Friday, May 21, 2010

Egyptian X-File : Stuart Tower , The beginning

When the 15th of May correction movement was remembered from a few days ago, I thought that I should write something about it.
I thought of writing something different about this incident aside from the usual talk about that night Sadat got rid of all Nasser's men who thought that he could easily be controlled.

I thought about writing about an Egyptian X-file associated with that night or rather associated with one of the main characters of that night in May 1971 but I was too lazy because I was too tired to do it.

Still, something happened made me more determined to open this file, the file of Al-Lithy Nassef, the first Egyptian to die in London mysteriously from Stuart tower.

Al-Lithy Nassaf
Al-Lithy Nassef
For those who do not know, Al-Lithy Nassaf was the founder and commander of the republican guard in Egypt during the Nasser era.
Born in 1922, Nassaf was graduated from the war school in 1940. He joined the free officers after the 1948 war.
On the 23rd of July 1952 during that coup that changed Egypt forever, he met the love of his life and his wife until his death, Shofika.

Nasser chose Nassaf to lead and found the Republican guard.

The man according to personal info from a former member of the division during the Nasser era was a real respectable patriot and popular man.

The name of Nassaf was not known during the Nasser era but rather after Nasser especially and specifically after the year 1971 with the role he played on 15th of May 1971.

As mentioned above Sadat got rid of all the Nasser men who considered him as a puppet.

Nassef swore the oath of loyalty to Sadat that night and helped him to stabilize his rule in the country with all what it meant to get rid of this good for nothing group that implanted dictatorship and fear in this country's root till this day.

After one year in 1972,Sadat promoted Nassef into lieutenant general transferring surprisingly him from the Republican guard into a military consulting position.

 In April 1973 President Sadat appointed him as the Ambassador of Egypt in Greece but before heading to Athens , he headed to London for treatment as he was sick and needed an urgent medical care.

In London, a diplomat from the Egyptian embassy found an apartment for Nassef and his wife to stay, that apartment was in Stuart Tower which would be famous later.

That diplomat was Egyptian intelligence officer Mahmoud Nour El-Din who would be famous later too.

Mahmoud Nour El-Din
Nour El-Din
Mahmoud Nour El-Din is another Egyptian X-File that needs another post or posts but in brief, he was an intelligence officer working in our embassy in London , very sociable with good relations with everybody according to the former diplomat in UK embassy Mustafa El-Faky's description.

Very loyal to Egypt,Nour El-Din's fame came when he left the intelligence service in 1977 and turned against Sadat regime rejecting the peace agreement with Israel.

After a couple of years, he would lead what can be considered the first and last Nasserist nationalist militia in Egypt which targetted and killed Israeli and American diplomats in the second half of the 20th century.

Nour El-Din was arrested in 1989 and died years later because of a virus infection in jail. This is in nutshell Nour El-Din's short Bio.

On the 15th of August 1973, the Nassafs woke up early in the morning to pray and start their day.

At 9 AM, Nassaf entered the bathroom wearing his pajama and sleepers.
When he was late in the bathroom , his wife Shofika began to worry , she knocked on the door but there was no answer.
 She thought that he may have gone for a walk but she was wrong because after two hours a police officer came to the house in order to tell her that she would not see her husband alive again.

Al-Lithy Nassef was found as a dead body in the street , he fell from the 10th floor after being dizzy according to the official British story which was supported by a British eyewitness who disappeared later.

Sooner the body of Nassef returned back to Cairo with a proper autopsy in London to be buried with its secrets.

The widow of Nassif insisted till her death that someone had pushed her husband to his death.

It was not only her who believed in the murder of El-Lithy Nassef but most Egyptians do even before the murder of Soad Hosni and Ashraf Marwan but no one gave any idea or reason why he would be killed or who he would kill him.

Shofika Nassef accused the Sadat regime of killing her husband without giving more details on why the regime Nassef swore to be loyal for would be behind such sinister act for real as El-Leithy Nassef did not impose any danger to Sadat.

Despite his popularity in the republican guard he could not lead a coup against Sadat who was preparing for a huge war after two months then but one can't be sure because this is politics and according to personal sources his house in Cairo was wired and he knew it !!

The grieving widow said that the evidence that the Sadat regime in the death of her husband was the involvement Mahmoud Nour El-Din ,whom she accused till her death despite his denial from his jail any involvement in Nassef's death supported by Mustafa El-Faky's testimony too.

Her accusation was based on the fact that he was the one who brought this apartment and that he probably had another copy from its key.

This week the name and involvement of Nour El-Din were brought back by Ibrahim Eissa in a one-second hint that made me wonder why he mentioned it like that now despite Nour El-Din's denial.

Another point, it was very interesting that Nour El-Din did not accuse anyone either in his letter from jail about this incident .

I believe there is something mysterious about El-Lithy Nassaf's death and despite the fact that the Sadat regime is the main suspect yet in the world of politics we can't be so sure.

This post could not have made without the wonderful post of Dr. Yasser Thabet.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this interesting post.
    It was my first time to read about El Laithy Nassaf.

    ReplyDelete

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