Exclusive: Shot at close range as
he stood, arms aloft, in front of the tanks, Ahmed Hashem Rashwan had the
makings of a martyr to Egypt
By Magdy Samaan and Richard Spencer in Cairo
Daily Telegraph 18 Aug 2013
References to Tiananmen Square have proliferated in today’s Egypt
The result was startlingly different. Shots are heard ringing out; the
slender figure in a white shirt crumples and folds over, rising from the ground
and then collapsing again, writhing before becoming still.
Close examination shows the back of the shirt puffing out at the
moment of impact. Whatever hit him came out the other side: this was live
ammunition, not birdshot.
But tracked down by The Daily Telegraph, the figure was,
remarkably enough, not only still alive but after two rounds of surgery even
able to speak about his actions.
“I was hit by two bullets, one in my stomach and one in my leg,” he
said.
Mr Rashwan, 34, an electronic engineer, was part of a crowd protesting
in Ismailia , a town on the Suez Canal three
hours’ drive south-east of Cairo
The journalist who shot the video, Abdullah Shocha, who works for a pro-Islamist
television station, caught the image of Mr Rashwan, whom he did not know
before, approaching the tanks with his arms above his head in a gesture of
surrender.
“After Friday prayers, the army besieged Saleheen Mosque, where the
protesters were praying,” Mr Shocha said. “This man raised his hands, and as
you can see he was not armed. They wanted to scatter the demonstrators.
First they shot into the air, and then they start to shoot directly at
the crowds.
“He was shot in his stomach, and another four people were shot at the
same time. Other people managed to pull him to the mosque.”
Speaking just after being released from hospital, Mr Rashwan, who is
not a member of any political or Islamist group, said he had reacted to the
first sounds of shooting. “I approached them to send a message that we were
peaceful but they shot at me,” he said.
“I’m not a complete supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, but I’m
afraid that the country is returning back to military rule and that is not a
good future for my son, who I want to live a better life.”
As has repeatedly been seen in the last few days, the army’s methods
of crowd control did not end with Mr Rashwan’s shooting. Mr Shocha said that
shortly afterwards an army helicopter appeared in the sky above the mosque, and
a gunman started shooting down on the crowd below.
In all, he said, ten people were killed, to be added to the more than
170 that fell in violence across the country on Friday, the large majority of
them members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opponents of the removal of
the deposed president, Mohammed Morsi.
Exact death tolls have been hard to calculate, with the army, police
and others surrounding mosques where bodies are being held and denying access
to reporters. But doctors say that many people died who could have been saved
if they had been allowed through police and army lines for treatment.
In another video, a man is seen being shot as he carries a wounded
colleague away.
The Ismailia video is also evidence of
the spread of the violence outside Cairo Ismailia
is the town where the Brotherhood was founded in 1928 – but it is also key for
its strategic position on the canal, the western world’s oil supply lifeline
and a vital source of income for Egypt
“No one did any thing to provoke them, but it seems that they are
intent on forcing silence on everyone, that anybody who says no to the coup
will be killed or arrested. They are accusing us of being terrorists.”
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