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Egypt's MP Wants Sadat's Assassination Reinvestigated
CAIRO, May 20 (Islamonline)-A new investigation into the 1981 assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat may reopen as a former police officer publicly said he knew about the assassination plan.
Abu El Ezz Al Hariri, a leftist parliamentarian, reportedly submitted a request to Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ebeid asking the government to reopen the file of Sadat's assassination during a military parade.
Hariri said he was prompted to act after Nabawi Ismail, who headed Egypt's police apparatus at the time of Sadat's death, admitted recently on an Egyptian television show that he had prior knowledge of the assassination plan.
In his letter to Ebeid, Hariri questioned why the government didn't investigate what Ismail revealed on television. The MP, who so far did not receive a response yet from Ebeid, warned that if he did not get an appropriate response or reaction from the Egyptian government he would resort to a public questioning.
There were reports that more MPs would back the questioning petition.
Al Hariri said in an interview with the pan-Arab Quds press that he is not seeking fame or public media attention, but he only wanted to know the whole truth of the story.
On his part, Nabawi Ismail, who was also the interior minister under Sadat, said in an interview to the Cairo-based opposition paper, al-Ahrar, paper that he rejects Hariri's claims. He also said t the MP was only after fame.
Ismail added that Hariri, who was arrested for rioting in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in favor of communism during his reign, was just getting back at him.
According to Al Ahrar, the former minister said that he did not know the exact date planned for Sadat's assassination, but he only had information that there were plans to kill the head of state. He said he informed the president, Sadat, of those plans on the day of the military parade. Nabwi said ignored the information.
During his interview to the state-run Nile News Channel, the former minister was reported to have testified that the security body had prior knowledge about what he termed as the Muslim Brotherhood's intentions to kill Sadat. Moreover, Ismail questioned why no one paid attention to a video tape with pictures of the the group shooting fire and training that was screened on television.
Sadat has become a world celebrity towards the end of 1970's after he initiated his daring diplomatic peace diplomacy with Israel in the late 70's. The peace initiative followed his country's victory over Israel in the 1973 war.
In Egypt, Sadat's new relationship with the west and his peace treaty generated considerable domestic opposition, especially among so-called activist Muslim groups. On October 6, 1981, Sadat was shot dead at the hands of activists during a military review celebrating the 1973 Suez crossing.
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