Nasser aides quizzed in doctor’s murder hunt

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 15

Nasser aides quizzed in doctor’s murder hunt

'X.Z PA -Reuter —Copyright) CAIRO. September 5. Egyptian authorities are considering murder charges against former aides of the late President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, as a result of allegations that his personal physician and his War Minister were poisoned, informed sources have said in Cairo. The Cairo Press has reported that a Presidential >hysician was murdered by >oison 11 years ago after he vas believed to have told ’resident Nasser that' he va£ medically unfit to rule he country. According to medical ources in Cairo, the late

; President suffered a rare dislease known as bronze diajbetes, a complaint which im- [ pairs mental abilities and j causes the victim’s features ’ to bronze. Observers recall that the, ■ late President’s complexion . turned darker in the last years of his life. President Nasser died in 1970, aged 52. When the Presidential physician — Dr Anwar El Mufti — died suddenly in 1964 there were whispers that his death was not of! natural causes. It was only after the liberalisation under President Anwar Sadat — which in- ! eluded a lifting of press cenjsorship — that Dr Mufti’s lease and many others camel (into the open. Earlier press reports had claimed that Egypt’s former War Minister and Commander of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Abdelj

Hakim Amer, had also been poisoned. He was officially said to have committed suicide after the Six-Day War of 1967. Reports of political detainees being tortured between 1960 and 1964 were also published recently in Cairo newspapers. One reported case was that of a leading Communist, Mr Shohdi Attia, who, was beaten to death in a de-! tention camp. His family later sued those responsible and received $16,000 in compensation. After these allegations, an official inquiry has been opened to decide whether to bring murder charges against those responsible. Mr Salah Nasr-, a former intelligence chief, and two former Justice Ministers are among those being interrogated.