Egypt: The Men in the Steel Cage

Amid tumult and shouting, the Sadat assassination trial begins

“When Defense Minister General Abdel Halim Abu Ghazala signaled me to goaway, I told him to get out of the way. I don’t want you,’ I said. ‘I want this dog, this tyrant Sadat.

In that dramatic public confession, First Lieut. Khaled Ahmed Shawki Islambuli, 24, a stocky artillery officer in the Egyptian army, last week told a three-judge military tribunal how he had assassinated President Anwar Sadat during a military parade on Oct. 6. Islambuli is accused of leading the four-man hit team that jumped out of a truck during the parade and charged the reviewing stand, firing automatic weapons and hurling grenades. Seven other people died in the attack, and 28 were wounded.

Islambuli expressed no remorse for the assassination. Indeed, he said, “I am proud of it because the cause of religion was at stake.” Nonetheless, his court-appointed attorney entered a plea of not guilty on the ground that Islambuli did not feel that he had committed a crime. Charged with murder are Islambuli and three other defendants alleged to have been on the hit team: an engineer, the owner of a bookshop, and a reserve army sergeant who had won an award for marksmanship. Also on trial were 20 other Muslim fundamentalists, who are charged in a 754-page indictment with offenses that include conspiracy and providing weapons for the plotters.

Throughout the trial, which has been closed except for two brief public sessions, the defendants have been confined in a large steel-barred cage. One defendant, who is still suffering from wounds incurred in the attack on Sadat, lies on a stretcher on the floor. When not in the courtroom, the defendants are kept in solitary confinement. Their attorneys charged at the opening of the trial that they had been beaten and tortured. Last week, however, they seemed in good spirits, clasped copies of the Koran and called out to relatives in the courtroom.

The defense is expected to mount an attack against Sadat’s regime as having been corrupt and repressive, while attempting to show that his killing was justified because he deviated from Islam. “Sadat was a dictator,” said Defense Attorney Ragaie Atteya. “He closed all channels of legal recourse. He allowed no democracy or freedom of the press.”

To show that Sadat’s government was tyrannical, Atteya will try to call as witnesses some of the 1,536 people who were summarily arrested and imprisoned during the late President’s September crackdown on dissidents. As for the defendants, he said, “They asked me to defend them not as persons but as a cause. They are sure they are going to their deaths.”

Meanwhile, in a bold effort to promote political reconciliation in the country, President Hosni Mubarak, Sadat’s successor, last week released 31 prominent figures arrested by Sadat. Among them were five former Cabinet officials and Mohammed Heikal, a former editor of the daily Al Ahram. In an extraordinary gesture, Mubarak had them brought directly from prison to the presidential palace to meet with him. Said Heikal afterward: “This is a great thing. It is the first time a President receives freed political prisoners and talks to them.”

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Fuad Mohieddin explained that Mubarak “feels the release of this group will open a new chapter on the political stage.” Those released were allowed to resume political activities, and some opposition leaders noted with surprise that they were being granted time on television to discuss their views. That rarely happened during Sadat’s reign.