CAIRO: Security forces arrested on Friday night Mohamed Abdel Ghaffar, son of Abdel Ghaffar Mohamed, the judge who presided over late President Anwar Sadat’s assassination case.
Security forces raided Mohamed’s house and confiscated some of the judge’s documents, including his journal that included key information and dates spanning his career.
Montasser El-Zayat, the lawyer representing the family, said they are unaware of Mohamed’s whereabouts or why he was taken.
He also told Daily News Egypt that Mohamed suffers from a mental illness.
“We are unable to get any clues as to where he was taken and why he was taken along with Abdel Ghaffar’s personal possessions, El-Zayat told Daily News Egypt.
His arrest cames hours after independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm published a two-year-old interview with his father last Friday. Abdel Ghaffar had requested that the interview not be published until after his death, because it included confidential information regarding the investigation of El-Sadat’s assassination.
Members of Abdel Ghaffar’s family have been pleading to the Ministry of Interior but to no avail. They are also appealing to the Judges’ Club to intervene.
El-Zayat plans to take the case to the Prosecutor General, he said.
In 1981, Judge Abdel Ghaffar Mohamed presided over what was dubbed the “Great Jihad Case that lasted four years, trying 302 suspects.
“It was Abdel Ghaffar who said during his interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm that he possesses critical information that is related to El-Sadat’s assassination, El-Zayat said.
Ahmed Khitter, the reporter who interviewed Abdel Ghaffar at the time, said that parts of the interview were not included in the article. “Due to the current political situation, Al-Masry Al-Youm published the interview without key confidential information, he said.
The interview detailed the way the judge dealt with the defendants, explaining how he insisted on handling the case himself.
According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the family deemed the arrest an insult to “the man who served the Egyptian judiciary, referring to Judge Abdel Ghaffar Mohamed, citing his role in El-Sadat’s case as well as other high profile cases.
