Al Jazeera Net


The Egyptian authorities settled the controversy over the fact that the former army officer, Hisham Ashmawi, was executed, as the army announced the execution of his death sentence today, Wednesday, days after local and international media published a news about his execution on February 24, the news that was withdrawn and apologized locally.

On Wednesday, the military spokesman for the Egyptian Armed Forces confirmed that Brigadier General of the war, Tamer Al-Rifai, executed the death sentence of Ashmawy, who was convicted of many charges, including carrying out armed attacks against the army and police forces that killed dozens.

And the military spokesman posted on his official page on Facebook a video that monitors Ashmawi's most prominent attacks against the army and police during the past years, and he published a picture of him in a red death suit.

However, security and judicial sources revealed to Al-Jazeera Net that the execution took place the first time, not the second, and that the denial of the news later came as a result of the Egyptian General Intelligence Agency pressure on the Ministry of Interior, which announced the news of the execution on its own.

Egyptian media had said last month that the authorities had carried out the death sentence of Ashmawy before they retracted and deleted the news from their websites, and Reuters news agency published the news, quoting Egyptian security sources.

Two death sentences were issued against Ashmawy, one of them was a soldier last November in the media-known case of Farafra, and the other from a civilian judiciary on March 2, just two days before, in the media-known case called “Ansar Beit al-Maqdis”.

Ashmawi's absence

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Ashmawi and 36 others to be hanged in the case of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, for committing 54 crimes, which included assassinations of police officers, an attempt to assassinate former Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, and bombings of several security installations.

A judicial source revealed to Al-Jazeera Net that the ruling, which was issued at the presidency of Counselor Hassan Mahmoud Farid, was supposed to be a ruling that the criminal lawsuit against the accused, Hisham Ashmawi, was due to his death, because he was executed days before the second death sentence was issued.

The source confirmed that Ashmawy did not attend the verdict session, and if he were alive, he attended the session and appeared to the media to confirm the denial of the news of his execution, which did not happen because of his execution at all, indicating that the judge confirmed the absence of the accused, and did not notify his execution, and accordingly he issued his ruling.

Hisham Ashmawi, the moment he arrived at Cairo Airport, after Egypt received him from Haftar forces in Libya (Communication sites)

Backstage conflict between devices

A well-informed source close to the sovereign apparatus revealed to Al-Jazeera Net a few days ago that the decision to postpone announcing the news of Ashmawi's execution was governed by security considerations, and others related to disputes between some of the authorities responsible for the file, which is the responsibility of the General Intelligence that received it from Libya.

He added: "Consequently, it is not permissible for another security apparatus to announce his execution, and it is expected that his execution will be announced at a later time, with the news attached to a photo report showing the man's crimes, and that he is on the lips of the Egyptian army spokesman, which happened later."


For his part, Khaled Al-Masry, who is Ashmawi's family lawyer, wrote on his Facebook page that he went with the family to the morgue of Zeinhum today, Wednesday, to receive Ashmawi's body for burial, but the morgue officials told them after the body was found.

And it reinforced what Ashmawy’s lawyer said, a third trend that some went to, that the Egyptian authorities - whether the army or the interior - have not yet executed Ashmawy, and that announcing his execution aims to close his media file, at a time when "settling accounts" continues with him.

Ashmawi's name was associated with a number of armed attacks that targeted Egyptian army elements, the most prominent of which was the Farafra Oasis operation in July 2014 that killed 29 Egyptian army officers and soldiers, as well as the Oasis Road operation in October 2017 that resulted in 11 Egyptian police officers were killed.

On May 29, 2019, Cairo announced that Ashmawi had received the forces of retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Hifter, according to Egyptian TV and the official Egyptian news agency.

Haftar's forces arrested Ashmawy in Derna, in eastern Libya, in October 2018.