3. Assassination
On 6 October 1981 Sadat was assassinated during the
annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Egypt's
crossing of the Suez Canal.
Eleven others were killed, among them was the Cuban
ambassador, an Omani general, and a Coptic Orthodox
bishop. Twenty-eight werewounded, including Vice President
Hosni Mubarak, Irish Defence Minister James Tully, and four
US military liaison officers.
4. Who was involved?...
The assassination squad was led by Lieutenant Khalid
Islambouli after a fatwā approving the assassination had
been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman. Islambouli was
tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed in April
1982.
5. What led to his
Assassination...
The Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978 led to a negotiated
peace between those two nations in 1979, the first between Israel and any of its
Arab neighbors.
The agreement with Israel brought peace to Egypt but not prosperity. With no real
improvement in the economy, Sadat became increasingly unpopular.
He reacted to criticism at home by expanding censorship and jailing his opponents.
Sadat subjected the Egyptians to a series of referenda on his actions and proposals
that he invariably won by more than 99 percent of the vote. In May 1980, an
impressive, nonpartisan body of citizens charged Sadat with superseding his own
constitution.
6. Continued...
In the months leading up to the assassination Sadat had lost much of his support
at home and in the West due to a brutal crackdown on fundamentalists.
In June 1981 tensions between Muslims and Copts in Egypt exploded into a
gruesome round of violence in the overcrowded Cairo slum of al-Zawiyya al-
Hamra, coupled with intense summer heat and frequent cutoffs in the water
supply. Men, women, and children were slaughtered.
Tensions continued to mount as Muslims and Christians blamed one another in
inflammatory press accounts. In September, Sadat cracked down on both sides with
mass arrests and brutal police tactics.
7. Aftermath...
Sadat was succeeded by his vice president Hosni Mubarak
Over three hundred Islamic radicals were indicted in the trial of assassin Khalid
Islambouli, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, Omar Abdel-Rahman and Abd al-Hamid
Kishk
The nephew of Sadat, Talaat al-Sadat, claimed that the assassination was an
international conspiracy. On 31 October 2006, he was sentenced to a year in
prison for defaming Egypt's armed forces. This wasn’t long after he gave the
interview accusing Egyptian generals of planning Sadat’s assassination. He also
claimed both the United States and Israel were involved.
8. Continued...
Following Sadat’s assassination, the killers were identified as Muslim radicals,
members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. They opposed Sadat’s landmark peace treaty
with Israel and hoped to impose Islamic rule in Egypt.
Hosni Mubarak and General Fouad Allam, head of Egypt’s security service, waged a
campaign against radical Islam that featured unlawful arrests, detention without
trial, and torture to force confessions.
Thousands of suspected terrorists were rounded up and jailed, among them Sheik
Omar Abdel Rahman, who was later convicted of conspiring to blow up New York
City landmarks, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of Osama bin Laden’s two top
lieutenants.
9. Fate of the Assassins...
The trial was covered by the international press and Zawahiri's knowledge of
English made him the de facto spokesman for the defendants. Zawahiri was
released from prison in 1984. His brother Mohammed al-Zawahri was imprisoned
from 2000 until 17 March 2011, and then re-arrested on 20 March 2011.[31]
Abboud al-Zomor and Tareq al-Zomor, two Islamic Jihad leaders imprisoned in
connected with the assassination, were released on 11 March 2011.
10. Sources
Works Cited
"Anwar Sadat." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Anwar_Sadat>.
"Egypt's Anwar Sadat Assassinated in 1981." Welcome to Palestine Facts. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://
www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_sadat_assassination.php>.
"Google Images." Google. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://
knowledgering.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Anwar_Sadat_cropped.jpg>.
Tristam, Pierre. "Anwar Sadat Assassination - Why and How Egypt's Anwar Sadat Was Assassinated on
Oct. 6, 1981." Middle East News and Issues from About.com. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://
middleeast.about.com/od/egypt/a/me081006a.htm>.
