Sulaiman Khater after 33 years .. The reality of the championship defeats the narrative of insanity

Ahmed Hassan - Cairo

Between the narratives of suicide and heroism, the story of Egyptian soldier Suleiman Khater remains on the 33rd anniversary of his mysterious death.

Khater was hanged in his cell after 25 years in prison for killing seven Israelis who crossed the Egyptian-Israeli border in the east of the Sinai Peninsula.

On the morning of January 7, 1986, Egyptian radio announced suicide in his cell, in a case that is still unclear, between an authority that it described as a "madman" and a people with "courage and honor" medals.

Sea of ​​cows - Sinai
Sulaiman Mohammed Abdul Hamid Khater was born in 1961 in the village of Ikiyad al-Bahriya in the province of Sharqiya (Nile Delta / North) in a simple family and was his youngest brother.

On the morning of Wednesday, April 8, 1970, the boy's ears pierced the sounds of the Israeli Phantoms bombing the school of "Bahr al-Bakr" near his village, in an attack on 30 pupils to pieces and wounding 50 others.

In her account of the incident, Suleiman's sister said in a previous television interview that "Suleiman was running quickly after hearing the incident, and returned stunned by what he saw and did not sleep the night."

Then the soldier ran to the Sea of ​​Cow to keep a bloody scene in his memory for 15 years, until he became the first Egyptian soldier, the most recent of them in the heart of Israel since the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Israel in 1979.

Central Security
Khater was a volunteer in the Central Security Forces, which belongs to the Egyptian police before he became Commander of the Central Security Forces' Point 46 in the Ras Barqa area of ​​Sinai, following the signing of the Camp David Agreement with Israel, which ordered the withdrawal of all military forces and the evacuation of heavy weapons and military equipment such as tanks .

The agreement agreed to the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army from several points. These points should be handed over to the Egyptian police, provided that they have the lowest types of armaments and insurance for the same areas, but the Taba area on the Gulf of Aqaba was a border problem between the two countries.

As a landmark in history, one of the main reasons for changing the laws of joining the Egyptian Central Security Forces was to limit the recruitment of the force to "illiterate" only.

Do not pass
On the fifth day of October 1985, the soldier with a bachelor's degree in law (law of law) shouted three times "stop ... no passing" from the top of the gate during his guard duty in Sinai, in a group Of Israeli tourists, including 12 people who tried to climb towards him.

The seven Israelis were killed and handed over to the military court after a presidential decision by deposed President Hosni Mubarak instead of the civil judiciary as stipulated by the constitution. Trial of the two policemen.

military court
The Israeli group included "naked women, children and a man," according to Khater in subsequent military investigations.

"I am a man who stands in my service and I do my duty, and I have equipment and equipment that no one should see," Khater said. "The mountain is of no origin and no one, whether Egyptian or foreign, is allowed to climb on it."

"Why do you insist on rebuilding your weapon?" He asked. "Because he who loves his weapon loves his country, and he who neglects his weapon neglects his homeland."

When the interrogator asked him, "What is the justification for keeping your number?" "I love him as much as I love the word of Egypt."

Before he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 28 December 1985, Khater said: "I do not fear death and I do not fear it. It is God's judgment and judgment, but I fear that the judgment against me will have a bad effect on my colleagues.

To be followed after the verdict "This provision is a judgment against Egypt, because I was an Egyptian soldier did his duty."

Crazy hero
The day after the verdict was issued, the national newspapers described Khater as "the loser" and "the mad hero", claiming that his psychological report proved to be "somewhat flawed."

Later, Khater was deported to the military prison in Nasr City (east of Cairo) to write in a leaked message, "I think of Egypt as my mother. I imagine that she is a good woman like my mother. Nilk ".

From the prison, Khater was taken to the prison hospital for treatment of schistosomiasis. He then declared the suicide of Sgt. Sulaiman Khater in the prison room with a hanged and hanging from his neck after only nine days in prison.

Denial of the family
"One day before Suleiman's death we were surprised by a visit to the family to see him. During the visit, he asked us for a toothbrush, toothpaste and a law book," said his brother Abdul Hamid Khater.

In response to the forensic report that he "committed suicide," Abdelhamid added, "I have raised my brother well and I know how much he believes and condemns him. He can not have hanged himself. They killed him in prison.

The official Egyptian newspapers repeated their death addresses as "Sulaiman Khater's suicide. He hanged himself on a three-meter-high window," which the family questioned and demanded an autopsy, but the request was rejected.

A few days after the departure of Suleiman Khater, Mubarak said of the incident, "I am very shy. One of my soldiers opened fire on a group of Israelis who crossed the border, killing seven of them."

The universities and schools of Egypt rose at the time, shouting "Sulaiman Khater died dead, but he died." But Khater's colleagues in the central security carried out the "orders" and broke up the demonstrations.

As he had previously committed suicide, he punished the Egyptian regime last March for "sensitivity" to the case of Sulaiman Khater, the author and director of a play that bore his name in prison on charges of "insulting the army." , Despite the presentation two years ago in Alexandria without objection from any party.