Brotherhood's secret files.. Fifth episode: Assassination of Amin Othman and Ahmed Maher

Published on December 29, 2013 on the website of the Arab Center for Studies and Research

The organization prepared studies on the assassinations of Amin Othman, Ahmed Maher, and Lord Moyne to take advantage of them.

Whoever opposes the call will waste his blood, and his killer will be rewarded for his actions.

The organization monitored all Egyptian parties and gatherings.

Each group member has to become a wolf among the wolves.

I also found many other papers in the car, including instructions on how to track people down and what the tracker should have in terms of speed of observation, conclusion, disguise, and appearance that does not invite attention.

Some of these papers contained detailed data on the installations of the Egyptian army and some foreign facilities, such as embassies, consulates and others. They also included information about government facilities, such as ministries, governorates, directorates, departments, centers, police points, prisons, departments, telegraph offices, telephones, mail, etc.

The same papers contained data about transportation, such as railways, trams, agricultural roads, bus lines, and others.

Some of the papers indicate that killing, which is considered a crime in normal circumstances, loses this character and becomes an obligation on a person, if it is used as a means to secure a call. (The stress is ours.)

Some of the papers also include incitement to guerrilla warfare, the use of Molotov cocktails, sabotaging transportation and railways, the use of explosives, mines, firearms, suffocation methods and the latest means.

They also show how to use the rifle and pistol and throw grenades, including an explanation of how to kill by daggers and disable cars by mixing gasoline with water, sugar, or other means.

The same papers include questions and answers about the killing of Amin Othman Pasha and the weaknesses that led to the arrest of the killer - and an explanation of relations with the person arrested and the reason for his meeting with him.

They also contained drawings and papers that include a study of previous assassination incidents, such as the murders of Ahmed Maher Pasha and Lord Moyne.

Among them were many notes in criminal law, in particular the powers of the investigator, the rules for search and red flag, and how to answer in case of arrest. They advise those arrested and interrogated not to mention that they are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, say that they left the group at an earlier date, not mention the names of their colleagues whom they know and answer by saying that they do not know or remember these colleagues. 

The papers also included notes on how to communicate with the symbolic codes. 

Found also inside the car were papers written on the typewriter, especially on programs and intelligence and their coordination with other departments, raising the level of leadership, informing leaders about the activity of secret movements, searching for and investigating accurate information, and that by these matters they have gone a long way imposed by God on them, and that the preparation deals with the personality of the working brothers and what they must have of good health, skill, self-regulation and cunning - and to achieve the wisdom of 'wolfing with wolves'. (The stress is made by us). They also explain what sports and technical preparations deal with and contain information about electricity, wireless, photography, shorthand, acting training, make-up, changing clothes, body and riding a bike and a car and the motorcycle, as well as driving the ferry when the movement is connected abroad and that when radio communication abroad is in bad times, things and news can be communicated by pilots or buy private planes until an airline is set up.

One of the tasks of the intelligence is also the presence of the intelligence group for the Egyptian parties, al-Wafd, the Saadistsm the Free Saadists, the Constitutional Liberals, the Wafdist Bloc, the National Party, the Young People’s Party, the Labor Party, the Socialist Farmer’s Party, and other unions and various associations and communist movements, as well as intelligence work for each of the ministries, the university, al-Azhar and schools.

In the jeep car, papers were also seized in which there was talk about foreigners, whether Jews or Christians, and warning against a deception that they are Dhimmis (non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection), and that declaring a regular war is not within the capacity of the group members now, and that they should not hesitate to assassinate the enemies of the Messenger of God, and that it is part of the unconditional sanctification of the blood of women. Among our politicians are those who must be uprooted and the country cleansed of them. If there is no legitimate authority that will shock them, then let those who put themselves as soldiers of truth take over and that Islam transcends the possibility of killing Muslims if it is in the interest - followed by statements about the obligation to support this group and that whoever opposes it, or stands by it for its sake, or try to hide its voice, his blood is wasted and his killer is rewarded for his action. (The stress is ours).

Codes for weapons and explosives

In the car, a notebook containing symbols and numbers was also seized. Two papers were attached to it, the first contained symbols for weapons and detonators, including the words 'Quran and soap' and a reference to naming people with specific numbers, and in the second contained a report on a meeting in which the numbers of the attendees were confirmed along with the study of the types of detonators, torches, fuses and capacities, and the continuation of the previous study and the reading of the list, as well as the general rules to remember if one is arrested and preparing the first part of the law and jurisprudence of the Sunnah until the first ablution for the next meeting and memorizing the first quarter of Surat Al-Insan.

1 - In Military Felony Case No. 227 of 1948, al-Waili, a leather folder was seized, containing papers consisting of programs and origins of issues divided in an orderly manner and placed in covers of white paper and includes a comprehensive system for each of the issues for which a file and a title were prepared separately, including a paper titled the 'Legal Body'. 

It includes the formation of a legal and judicial committee, a paper entitled 'Legal and Judicial Section', in which a statement of the purposes of this section and its organization, the establishment of reconciliation committees, college courts, an investigation office, a Supreme Court, a peace committee, a research committee, a regulations committee, a list of punishable crimes and the penalties prescribed for them, and a detail of the jurisdiction of each of these committees, including papers related to external and internal propaganda, and one of their means is to run processions and demonstrations in foreign countries to support the group in its position with the intention of putting pressure on the hostile government, such as sending a meaningful article or cables to Egyptian newspapers with a specific news that they must publish, as happened when the killing of Imam Yahya was broadcast by mistake before it happened. 

The first is that this news creates a special tension that can be used to benefit the movement.

It also stated that propaganda requires the establishment of broadcasting stations for radio two days a week, three broadcasts every day, in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening, and that the radio program is to narrate news, comments, rumors and slang speeches that evoke the emotions and feelings of the masses in the German way, and by issuing publications on the incidents committed by members of the movement in a manner, sometimes exaggerated criticism, and defamation for delusion, at other times, making political speeches, campaigning in newspapers and showing some films about the liberation movements, and that this propaganda requires the presence of a printing press, a zincograph lab. Among these papers are also three papers on 'subsidies, compensation and smuggling', in which a statement on the means of smuggling by means of transportation of planes, ships, cars and convoys, and about smuggled goods and hard currency, and that people must be prepared to work in some places and companies, and to participate in shares of companies or establish them to work in port areas. The board of directors and the formation of a board of directors for Cairo and another for the regions, from directors and heads of regions, in which there is a statement on the number of people special in the test phase and three other phases in which one studies military matters, guerrilla warfare, urban warfare, mines, machine guns, training trips, extreme sports, driving, swimming, jumping, running, and mastering a foreign language.

The jeep and the spy

Among these papers are also two papers on espionage and its definition, purposes, organization and formation of a president, agent, units, individuals and the competence of each of them, and that their members be five groups distributed among the following bodies - Study and Tracking - Communism - Young Egypt - al-Wafd – Saadists - al-Ahrar - Egypt Front – the Bloc – Muslim Youths - Young Christians - Labor Party - Trade Unions - Political Police - Secretariat and Operations Presidency. (Emphasis made by us)

The report of the calligraphy experts revealed that these papers seized in the clipboard were written by hand by Mr. Fayez Abdul Muttalib, the accused in felony case No. 227 of 1948, al-Waili Military Court.

Among the portfolio papers, a large number of reports, drawings, and accurate data on the British, American and French embassies, shops, hotels, homes and people in Cairo and its suburbs, Alexandria, Port Said, Suez and other cities of the Kingdom of Egypt were found, the right people to carry it out and how to escape after committing the accident. (Emphasis made by us)

2- Mr. Fayez Abdul Muttalib, accused in Military Felony Case No. 227 of 1948, al-Waili, was arrested on January 19, 1948, along with others, while they were training in the use of weapons and explosives in the direction of Muqqattam Hills. 

From the way it was edited, it appears that it is a table of cells and has been symbolized by the large number of people who have the names mentioned in it with certain numbers, among them the names of the third, fourth and fifth defendants, Atef Attieh Helmy, Kamal Sayed Sayed al-Qazzaz and Abdul Aziz Ahmed al-Baqli, and he symbolized them with the numbers 122, 252 and 253 respectively. It was found in the seized leather clip in Military Felony Case No. 227 of 1948, the aforementioned Waili, as it was symbolized by its editors with specific numbers, some of which were mentioned in the mentioned cell table. It was proven from the experts’ report and from the confession of some of the defendants who were symbolized in the table by certain numbers that they wrote the seized reports in that clipboard, which symbolized to its editors with these numbers.

One of them, Abdel-Fattah Tharwat, accused in Military Felony Case No. 41 of 1949 in Misr al-Kadima, admitted that he had written three reports on three commercial stores, in which he described these stores, how they were blown up, and the method of escaping after committing the accident. He was the head of his cell and that he swore in this house of Atef to obedience, sincerity and secrecy.

Edited on July 11, 1949 - signed by the Attorney General - (Mahmoud Mansour)

Ruling in the case

Finally, the rulings in the case were as follows:

1. Abdul Majeed Ahmed Hassan – Execution

Original perpetrator of the accident

2- Mohamed Malik Yusuf – Permanent hard labor

He was chosen by Abdul Majeed Ahmed Hassan.

3- Atef Attia Helmy – Permanent hard labor

He took the accused to the tailor to have a military uniform adjusted to him.

4- Shafiq Anas

5- Mahmoud Kamel

Permanent hard labor

Partners in agreement and assistance, as they were present on the day of the accident, the first in constable clothes, and the second in military police clothes, to help the accused commit the accident and escape

6- Kamal al-Qazzaz – Innocence 

Al-Tarazi was summoned in his place to meet the accused and Atef to agree on the details of the suit.

7- Abdulaziz al-Baqali – Innocence

The tailor who adjusted the suit for the accused

8- Mohamed Salah al-Deen Abdel Moati – Innocence

He hosted a meeting at his house

9- Al-Sayed Sabeq – Innocence 

A preacher who issued an indict sanctioning killing 

10- Al-Sayed Fayez – Innocence 

Head of Cairo groups who attended some meetings to manage the accident

11- Abdel Halim Mohamed Ahmed – Innocence 

He used to frequent the Shubra house and attend meetings.

12- Mahmud Helmy Farghal – Innocence 

He used to frequent the Shubra house and attend meetings.

13- Mohamed Ahmed Ali – Innocence 

He used to frequent the Shubra house and attend meetings.

14- Galal Yaseen – Innocence

He had been chosen to assist the murderer in the commission of the accident by wearing constable's clothes. He pretended to be ill and was replaced by Mahmud Kamel.

15- Mohamed Nayel – Innocence 

The renter of the Shubra house, in which the defendants used to change their normal clothes for military clothes on the occasions when they resolved to commit the accident

This brings us to the end of this episode. We will meet in the next episode.