Charges against Nasser’s son revive controversy

Press, 20 February 1988, Page 12

Charges against Nasser’s son revive controversy

NZPA-Reuter Cairo In a politically sensitive case which could dent the image of one of Egypt’s national heroes, the prosecution has demanded the death sentence for the eldest son of the late President, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Khaled Abdel Nasser, now in self-exile in Yugoslavia, was charged yesterday with direct involvement in forming and financing a group called "Egypt’s Revolution” which attacked Israeli and United States diplomats.

A transcript of statements by witnesses, released by the state prosecutor, blamed the group for wounding an Israeli attache in June, 1984, and killing two Israeli diplomats in separate machinegun attacks in 1985 and 1986.

The group also shot and wounded two United States diplomats last May.

The organisation, formed in February, 1984, evaded Egyptian security for more than three years until a runaway member went to the authorities last August and said it

followed President Nasser’s Leftist teachings. President Nasser, who led the 1952 revolution that toppled King Farouk, devised his own brand of socialism.

His political daring and fiery oratory made him a hero of Arab nationalism and an inspiration for Third World revolutionaries. He pursued an antiUnited States, anti-Israeli line and in 1955 became the first Arab leader to conclude an arms deal with Moscow.

When he died in September, 1970, his successor Anwar Sadat adopted a pro-Western policy and criticism of President Nasser’s line surfaced. Accounts of alleged human rights violations, abuse of power and corruption were allowed in the Government-owned press.

Although President Nasser has undergone some rehabilitation under President Hosni Mubarak, attempts by Nasserites to form a legal political party so far have failed. The case against his son is likely to spark renewed controversy as the ideology of Egypt’s Revolution

reflected President Nasser’s anti-American policy. The State Prosecutor, Mohammed Abdel Aziz Al-Guindi, said Khaled Abdel Nasser, aged 38, an engineer, would be tried in absentia. No date has .been set for his trial with 19 others before a Supreme State Security Court. Charges against President Nasser’s son include criminal complicity, incitement, and funding and arming the group. Mr Guindi demanded death sentences for him and 10 others. The remaining nine, including Khaled’s Abdel Nasser’s cousin, Gamal Shawki Abdel Nasser, who is still at large, face prison terms if convicted of lesser charges. Diplomats said if Khaled Abdel Nasser had not been prosecuted, Mr Mubarak would have come under pressure from Washington to put him on trial. The American Government ' has pledged to take a tough stand against terrorism, especially when United States diplomats become guerrilla targets.