Hisham Al-Ashmawy's execution : An End for bloody sad chapter

Earlier Wednesday, Egyptian armed forces announced that militant and former army special forces Hisham  Al-Ashmaway was executed by hanging.

The Egyptian army spokesperson published the news in a short statement accompanied by Al-Ashmway's last official photo in the execution reddish-orange suite.

Allegedly the last mugshot of Al-Ashmawy

It is unclear when the photo was taken or where precisely.

After his capture in October 2018 in Libya’s Derna by Khalifa Hafter’s Libyan National Army and that Chapo-style transfer to Cairo, the former special officer in Egypt’s Thunderbolt forces faced 5 trials with a wide range of charges above them carrying out terrorist attacks against army and police forces.

After his capture, Al-Ashmawy was sentenced to death twice including one in November 2019 by a military court.

The 1978-years-old  was also found guilty in 14 crimes including the 2014 ambush that killed 22 Egyptian military border guards near the border with Libya and a failed assassination attempt on a former interior minister in 2013 according to the Egyptian armed forces spokesperson who released a video about Al-Ashmawy’s crime.

Despite my mixed feelings about capital punishment in Egypt, I can't stop thinking about those who lost their beloved ones in his deadly attacks in that unholy war he declared against the current Egyptian regime.

His execution won't return their beloved ones to life but I guess it may calm down their anguish or their "inside fire" as we say in Egypt. It is justice for them.

I can't stop thinking about the damage he and his terrorist organization had made affecting not only thousands but rather millions of Egyptians.

Without a doubt , there will be a very small minority from extremists that will mourn him, especially from Al-Qaeda.

It will be interesting to see if Daesh mourns in its media or not.

Needless to say, Al-Ashmawy was probably the only man that was wanted dead or alive by both the Egyptian state and Daesh.

The man is not the first army officer to go extremely radical or militant against the state, in fact he is not the first one or the last one in those crazy 9 years. There were others who did not reach this level of notoriety. It is a sad bloody chapter.

Personally, I hope he would be the last one but history tells us never say never and there are many mistakes whether socially or politically or economically or religiously or ideologically that have not been corrected despite how many times they are highlighted to help in avoiding creating militant radicals.

Before closing this chapter, I would like to share this photo that was shared and went viral last year or the year before. The photo of Al-Ashmawy when he was serving in the Egyptian armed forces along with none other than late army officer Ahmed El-Mansy.

El-Mansy is on the left while Al-Ashmawy on the right

Ahmed El-Mansy who was born in 1977 was a special forces unit commander who was killed in a July 2017 terrorist attack. El-Mansy was said to be a very well experienced army officer who was popular among his comrades and soldiers.

Interestingly, I knew from some of his civilian friends who knew personally him that he participated reportedly in the famous protest of 28 January 2011 that headed to Tahrir square.

There will be a Ramadan TV series about the two men and honestly, I believe that TV shows creators should leave Ahmed El-Mansy alone.

By the way, I am puzzled with the fact that when the LNA forces arrested him, they found the old Egyptian armed forces ID with him and up till now I do not know what it was doing with him as it is old as far as I was told.