Egyptian Chronicles: Egyptian X-File : Judge Abdel Ghafer’s Documents

Yesterday it was announced that the Egyptian authorities have detained the son of judge Abdel Ghafer Mohamed for no announced reason since last week. Not only that but also the Egyptian authorities have searched the house of the late judge and confiscated his personal documents. I think you are asking now : Who is or was judge Abdel Ghafer Mohamed in the first place and why are his documents so important to this level ??

Well judge Abdel Ghafer Mohamed has a special role in our Egyptian life with two top X-File cases : The Abdel Hakim Amar’s group case and the assassination of President Sadat case.

Judge Abdel Ghafer was the prosecutor in Abdel Hakim Amar’s group which was accused for planning a coup after the six days war still his big fame came from being the judge in what was known as “The grand Jihad” case which was associated with “The Sadat assassination” case , the mother of all Egyptian X-files.

This was man knew all the details up till now we know none of them , all those details we are speculating and guessing he had it under his own hands ; he read over 10,000 document in this case and had to study over 203 accused who were facing death penalty all of them in one of the longest and hardest cases the Egyptians courts have ever seen.

He did not speak except once in 2007 in an interview that was supposedly going to be published then at Al Masry Al Youm but for some unknown political reason it did not publish ; it only has seen the light after his death !!

The interview for sure is very interesting especially the part concerning Hassan Abu Pasha , the former minister of interior who told him that Israel demanded that Al-Islamboly would be executed first before the withdrawal from Ras Mohamed !!?? The late judge did not say why because of it is a political subject !!!!!

He said that he knew that information when he tried to use to his influence to free his son from jail , it seems that his son was arrested among the September arrests “He said that his son was innocent and yet entered the jail because his friend said his name in investigations”!!

Strangely no one would have paid that attention to this interview despite its importance if it were not for what happened after it. On the same day that interview was published the police went to his house at Misr El-Gadida and confiscated all his documents including his memories which he had just finished before his death. The memories were expected to include secrets and documents related to the “Grand Jihad” Case the Egyptians do not know ; the same secrets the man asked that they would not be revealed except after his death !!?

What is in his memories ?? What did he write ?? What did he see behind the curtains and decided to share with the public after his death ?? What are these documents to be included in his memories ?? What are these important documents that made the police move in the Eid and not only confiscate it but also arrest his eldest sick son !!!??

New questions added to the old questions and we are waiting for an answer ; I wonder when we will have it !!

Non-trivia :

203 persons were accused in that case and were facing death penalty.
2 of them had died in jail.
190 were found not guilty and were freed.
33 were sentenced to 3 years in jail.
17 were sentenced to 25 years in jail
The rest received between 5,10 and 15 years.
Among the most famous names in this case : Ayman El-Zawahary “whom the late judge remembered how to used to speak to foreign reporters in English” and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.
That case was in front of the civilian courts and after its verdict if I am not mistaken the case was transferred to the military courts according to the emergency laws.
After leaving the judiciary Judge Abdel Ghafer and became lawyer Abdel Ghafer where he defended members of the Islamist groups in front of the Egyptian courts