“Mubarak resolves the Ashraf Marwan debate: he was a loyal patriot.
So claimed the headline of the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper on July 3, referring to the media frenzy that followed the death of Egyptian billionaire Ashraf Marwan who fell off the balcony of his London apartment on June 27.
It was only his untimely death that triggered a media probe into the previously untrodden and arcane area in the eventful life of Marwan involving Israeli allegations of espionage. The Israelis claimed he supplied Tel Aviv with valuable intelligence information ahead of the 1973 October war. Other Israeli versions of this story concede that Marwan was a double agent for Cairo and Tel Aviv.
Whatever version some of us choose to believe or dismiss is relative. What is clear, however, is that throughout the past three years the name of Ashraf Marwan was repeatedly debated in the Israeli media, amongst Israeli intelligence officers, and politicians, as they attempted to pinpoint the source of Tel Aviv’s intelligence failure in the 1973 war.
And while Marwan’s name was openly and widely discussed, the Egyptian side was shockingly silent if not indifferent throughout. Is it the language barrier one might wonder? But then even after the London-based Saudi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper recently ran an exclusive series of Israeli documents on the 1967 defeat and the run up to the 1973 war which made clear references to Marwan, this information was ignored, again, even though it was in clear, simple, readable, shocking Arabic.
Marwan had to fall off his expensive London balcony so the Egyptian media would finally discuss his alleged role as a spy for Israel. It was only then that Egyptian public opinion was offered a glimpse of the life of a man who might – and might not – have jeopardized this country’s national security 34 years ago.
Egyptian officials, in the intelligence or political departments, should have arranged for an independent inquiry – if not a trial – on Marwan’s role three years ago when his name was leaked to the Israeli media. They never did and nobody seems to know why.
That President Mubarak decides to “resolve the “debate by stating one Monday morning that Marwan was a “patriot and “no spy for anyone is taking the matter lightly, and worse, taking public opinion too lightly. Espionage is a serious and heinous crime. Espionage allegations are no less serious and only the judiciary is entitled to resolve this issue, especially when it involves this country’s national security.
So, no. Al-Masry Al-Youm’s claims that the matter is “over after the presidential testimony is false. On the same day the paper published Mubarak’s statements, a news item on the death of convicted Mossad spy Sherif El-Filali while in prison was placed right next to the Marwan coverage. Coincidence or not, the two adjacent items were typically ironic and telling of how politics and power shape public opinion in our part of the world.
Because 42-year-old El-Filali was an ordinary entrepreneur, when he was suspected of spying for Israel, he was arrested, tried and found guilty. His funeral was low-key attended by a handful of relatives. His casket was made of cheap wood engraved with the words “remember Allah.
Billionaire, arms-dealer, former share holder of the British Chelsea Football Club, son-in-law of Egypt’s iconic Gamal Abdel-Nasser and confidant of the president who succeeded him, Anwar El-Sadat, 63-year-old Marwan was a powerful, highly connected man whose funeral was led by statesmen, his casket wrapped in an Egyptian flag.
In a democracy, where individuals are treated as equals before the law, Marwan would have been investigated if not tried, just like El-Filali. While a court found El-Filali guilty, Marwan never stood before a judge. His tragic death should be an occasion to open a serious inquiry into his role in the 1973 war that would present its convincing findings to the public. There is no other way to “resolve the debate.
