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The Trusted Killer: Betrayal and Bloodshed Behind a Giza Sheikh's Closed Door During the Friday of Rage · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Giza, Egypt, twenty eleven. Let's picture this. You're in the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Harem area. It's just, you know, a few miles from
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the absolute chaos of Tariir Square during the revolution.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the time where that national upheaval, the protests,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the sheer uncertainty. It felt really close.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Palpable, right, and this was the period they called the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Friday of Rage. Just constant, sometimes violent turbulence right out
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: there on the streets.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: But inside one particular apartment, pretty modest place, life was
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: meant to be well, different, shielded, defined by quiet faith.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: This was the home of Sheik Ahmed a Meher and
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: his wife Mona said abdel la tif Shaikh Ahmed. He's
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: only twenty nine, severely disabled by muscular atrophy and needed
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: a wheelchair, but.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Despite that he was a real pillar in his community,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: a respected religious teacher, a hafiz, he'd memorized the entire quorn.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And because of his condition, his home basically was his school, right.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: It had to be an open house.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Exactly, students, neighbor's friends, just a constant flow of people
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: coming and going all day every day. Total trust was
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: the foundation.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Until this Friday, when somehow the rage from the city
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: outside found its way in.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So after the midday Friday prayers, you have students,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: some neighbors turning up as usual, expecting that open.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Door, but it wasn't. The door was closed tight. They knocked,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: called out his name, nothing just silence.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Which was unusual. Right, So after some hesitation, they figure
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: out a way. They lift a small child up up
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to the windows to peek inside.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: And the sound that came in next just a child scream.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: That was the first horrible signal that something was deeply
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: terribly wrong inside.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: The neighbors hearing that, they forced their way in and
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: what they find is just it's a scene of terrible contradictions.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Shitama is there in his wheelchair, motionless, dead, dead, his
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: mouth is hands, his legs all bound, yeah, tightly with
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: this very specific kind of medical adhesive tape.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: But that wasn't all. The horror wasn't over his wife, Mona.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: She was found on the bed bound, gagged with the
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: same tape. But her death it was violent, viscus. She
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: had been beaten badly. She's partially closed and her throat
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: had been slit. The scene was just horrific, blood everywhere.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: So the initial assessment, right, there at the scene. It
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: must have been baffling for the police.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Completely baffling. You have this double murder, clearly executed with
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: some cold efficiency, targeting this defenseless respective man and his wife,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: but zero signs of forced entry, nothing.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Which leads to that immediate chilling thought.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the killer wasn't some random intruder breaking in. The
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: killer walked right through the front door. It was someone
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: they knew, someone they trusted implicitly.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And that's the core mystery we're really digging into today.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: How did the police piece together these tiny contradictory clues
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to unmask a killer hidden behind this perfect facade of piety.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: And what does that betrayal tell us.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: It's a deep dive into deception.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Really, So let's talk about the victims first, because their lives,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: their devotion, it actually that's up the motive in a
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: tragic way. Shaq Ahmed, like we said, beloved teacher.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Relied totally on Mona, his wife, who was interestingly eleven
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: years older than him.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: And their story is quite something, isn't it. She wasn't
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: just married to him, no, not at all.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: It wasn't convenience. She actually proposed to him. Specifically, she
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: wanted to dedicate her life to his care and also
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: crucially to learn religion directly from him.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So their marriage was this deep partnership faith, mutual
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: devotion everyone around them, family, the community. They really valued
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: that relationship, and it.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Was that very devotion, that care that unintentionally put a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: target on them. How So, Well, just two days before
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the murder, on the Thursday, Shay Ahmed wanted to show
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: his appreciation for everything Mona did a big gesture. He
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: asked his sisters to go out and buy a significant
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: gold gift for her.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Ah. Okay, so this wasn't just a small token. We're
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: talking substantial.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Gold exactly, valued around eight hundred Egyptian pounds at the time,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: which you know, for their modest life, that's a pretty
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: significant amount of wealth suddenly visible in their home.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Right. A gesture of love that tragically became baked.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: So when the investigator started processing the scene, the physical
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: evidence told two kind of different stories about how the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: murders happened, didn't it. What did forensics.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Find, Well, it confirmed that initial contradiction. No struggle at
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: the door, suggesting maybe the killer was let in willingly
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: or maybe victims were sedated somehow okay, but then the
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: specifics she Ahmed's toxicology report showed huge doses of sedatives
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: in his system, so definitely an attempt to incapacitate him
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: chemically first.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: But he wasn't just sedated.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: No, after that, he was physically strangled or asphyxiated. The
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: tape binding him likely contributed to.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: So calculation first with the poison, but then direct physical
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: violence exactly.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: But with Mona it felt different, more frenzied. She was
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: brutally beaten multiple times before a throat was cut. Just
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: extreme violence.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: And there is clear evidence of robbery too.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Oh yea, yeah, definitely. Forensics noted a specific tear on
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: her left ear, a traumatic wound consistent with an earring
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: being ripped out forcefully.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: So grabbing the gold was part of it. We've got
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: premeditation bringing the sedatives, that specific tape, but also this
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: explosion of rage against Mona. What about that tape in
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the drugs? Why were they so important?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: They were the lynchpins? Really, that wide medical adhesive tape
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: and this specific type and large quantity of sedative. These
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: weren't things you just find lying around their apartment. Okay,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: It strongly suggested a pre packed kit. Someone came prepared
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: not just to subdue, but potentially to kill. Confirmed it
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: was planned.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: You can just imagine the investigators arriving this place, an
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: open school, like you said, people in and out constantly.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: The crime scene must have been a fingerprint disaster zone.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, an absolute nightmare. That's exactly what it was. Initially,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: just a chaotic mess of prints from countless visitors. Yeah,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: students' family, neighbors.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: So matching prints was going nowhere.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Fast, basically impossible at the start, and with no forced
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: entry pointing towards truss, they had this huge pool of
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: trusted people. They had to change tack from.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Who was there to how those specific items got there.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Precisely, the focus shifted who had access, who had the means,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: but crucially who could have obtained that specific sedative and
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: that specific type of wide medical.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Tape right track the tools exactly.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: They started interviewing everyone, anyone who saw or spoke to
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: the sheik on the Thursday or that Friday morning, students, family,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: They all had solid alibis, normal interactions reported, They were clear.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Except one person.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: So what this is where you know, sometimes they go
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: down to detective's intuition a gut feeling.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Who was it?
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: A student named Mohammed father la al Hussini. He'd studied
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: quite a bit of the Qoran with the shake about
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: eight parts.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, so seemingly a dedicated student. What was his story?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Al Husseini gave what sounded like a rock solid alibi,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: said he was nowhere near Haram during the crucial time window.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: He claimed he went to Friday prayers and then straight
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: to Tariir Square for the Friday of Rage.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Protests, miles away and a massive crowd potentially thousands of witnesses,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: though maybe hard to verify anyone specific.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Right, it seemed airtight, and neighbors, even the Sheik's family
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: vouched for him. Initially just another respected student.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: But the police weren't buying it.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Not entirely. Something about his demeanor, his eyes. They had
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: what experienced investigators call a security sense, a feeling that
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: he wasn't being truthful despite the strong alibi.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: That's a big risk focusing on someone with such a
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: public alibi.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: It was, but they kept digging, and about twelve days
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: later that persistence paid off big time.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: How did they finally crack it? The alibi seemed so
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: strong it.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Cracked in two places almost simultaneously. First, a detective found
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a pharmacist, a doctor Mina, and doctor Mina remembered a
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: very specific, unusual sale on that Friday morning, just before prayers.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: What was the sale?
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  Speaker 2: A man bought two rolls of that distinctive wide medical
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: adhesive tape and a very large quantity.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Of sedatives, the exact items from the crime scene. Did
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the buyer give a reason?
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, story claimed he needed the stuff to sedate and
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: restrain his brother, who he said was a drug addict
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: trying to run off.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: And doctor Mina.
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  Speaker 2: When they showed doctor Mina the photo array, he picked
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: out Al Husseini immediately. That was him the buyer. Wow.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And then at the same time, the tech side came
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: through geographical tracing of al Hussini's mobile phone signal. It
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: completely shattered his tariar square story where did it place
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: him squarely in the Haram area, right near the Shik's
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: apartment during the exact timeframe the murders were committed. His
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: alibi just evaporated, So.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: The mask comes off. This wasn't just a student having
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a bad feeling about him. This was something much darker.
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  Speaker 1: Who was Mohammed Fathala al Husseini.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Really, the background check revealed the truth. He wasn't just
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: a student. He was thirty six years old, originally from Damieta,
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  Speaker 2: and he was a registered felon with a long history
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: fourteen prior cases and critically a serious heroin.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Addict addiction that explains a desperation absolutely.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: I mean twenty eleven post revolution.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's key.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: There was this trend, almost a cover, where people were
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: joining religious groups, becoming visibly pious. I was saying. He
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: seems to have grabbed onto that as a disguise, exactly,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: a perfect disguise to hide his criminal past, to gain trust,
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  Speaker 2: get access to homes like the sheikhs, and ultimately to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: find ways to get money for his heroin habit. Fast.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: So his piety was a performance, a tool, and during
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: his visits being welcomed in, he must have noticed Mona's gold,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: especially that new valuable gift she received just the day before.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: That appears to be the trigger. He needed money badly.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: The addiction was driving him. The golds was right there,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: a visible target, but his motive seems to have twisted
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: into something uglier than just robbery.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: How So, his psychology was warped, deeply cynical, it seems,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: warped by the addiction, maybe by his criminal life.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: He apparently viewed everyone with suspicion. Initially, even Mona.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: He didn't believe her devotion was real.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: No, he reportedly thought she was faking it, just pretending piety,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: maybe using the Sheik for her own benefit. He even
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: apparently tried to initiate some kind of inappropriate relationship with.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Her, testing her or trying to corrupt her.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Maybe trying to expose what he thought was her hypocrisy.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: But when she firmly rejected him, proving her genuine virtue, well,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: it didn't make him back.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: And made things worse.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: It seems so instead of respecting her, it appears to
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: have enraged him, like he couldn't stand that genuine goodness
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: when his own life was so depraved that rejection might
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: have solisfied his decision. Rob them, yes, but also silenced them,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: both of them permanently.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's walk through the crime itself. Now that Friday morning,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: he has his supplies.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Right, buys the tape and the sedatives from doctor Mina,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: then goes to the Sheik's house. He's welcomed in of course,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: trusted student it. In the first move, he offers to
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: make a drink for the Sheik, a kind gesture easily accepted,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: and he slips that massive dose of sedative into it.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Calculated, but then a mistake he gets him pitching.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sees the heroin kicked in. While he was waiting
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: for the sedative to work on the Sheic, al Husseini
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: apparently went to the bathroom to take his own hit
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: of heroin. Okay, he comes out, but the sedative hasn't
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: fully knocked the Shek out yet, and heroin often makes
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: addicts agitated and patient. He couldn't wait any longer. He
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: decided to act.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Now, attacking the Sheik while he was still conscious or
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: semi conscious.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Seems that way. He jumps on him, binds his mouth, hands,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: feet with that tape. The Sheek is disabled, completely unable
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: to resist physically anyway, but now he's gagged.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: And bound too, and then he strangles him even after.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: All that, Yes, strangles him to death. Mona hears the
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: commotion from another room, and this is where the manipulation
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: just becomes bone chilling.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: He has to cover up what just happened fast.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: He does with a disturbingly calm lie. He tells Mona,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: who comes to check that, oh, the Sheik was just
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: talking loudly online with someone. He got tired. Everything's fine,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: and she believes him, apparently so rust He then moves
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: shakeout Hahmed's body, still in the wheel chair, into the bedroom,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: hiding the immediate horror.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: And then the final fatal deception for Mona.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: He pretends to leave, makes a show of it, opened
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: the front door, closes it loudly, trying to trick her
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: into thinking the visitor the student is gone and.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: She's safe, so she lowers her guard.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Exactly the moment she steps out of her room, maybe
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: going to check on her husband properly. Now, al Husseini
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: confronts her. He'd hidden himself inside and now he has
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: a knife. He attacks her immediately, strikes her head hard
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: multiple times. Before she can really scream or react, he
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: gags her mouth with the same adhesive tape, silences her cries.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Then drags her into the bedroom.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Drags her into the bedroom where her husband the body is,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: the saults her, and then the final act, slits her
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: throat using the very tape he bought just hours before
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: as part of his murder.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Kit a coldness of it. And then afterwards he didn't
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: just flee.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: No, this speaks volumes about his mindset. After all that brutality,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: he becomes methodical again. He cleans up the blood as
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: best he can, collects the gold, any money he.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Can find, gather's the evidence.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Crucially, yes, gathers the empty seted packaging, and he left
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: over taped the knife, anything connecting him directly that he
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: locks the door from the outside using their key presumably.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And then he goes to the mosque and Tarrier Square.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Unbelievably, Yes, go straight to the mosque for the Friday prayers.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: That proceeds to Tarrier Square, right into the protesting crowds
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: to build that alibi. Only after performing that public piety
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: does he flee to Damieta, presumably to sell the goal
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: and buy more heroin.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: It's just the depth of the betrayal is staggering. This
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: image the community had the trusted student, the man of
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: faith shattered revealed as this desperate, predatory killer hiding behind
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: religion itself.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the shock in the community was immense. Even after
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: the arrest. Faced with the evidence, people apparently struggled refuse
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: to believe that the Quran student they knew could be
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: this monster.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: The evidence held up.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Overwhelmingly, the pharmacist's ID, the specific tape and sedative, the
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: phone's geolocation data, sure it was irrefutable. It completely destroyed
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: his alibi. Mohammed fathal al Huseini was convicted. The sentence
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: was execution.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: When you look back at this case, the tragedy of
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Shake Ahmed and Mona, it really serves as this chilling reminder,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: doesn't it, that sometimes the most important darkness can hide
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: behind the most respected masks, especially in times of chaos
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: like twenty.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Eleven, absolutely desperation, addiction, They can drive people to use
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: any cover, any facade, piety, community, tized professional status to
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: get what they need to exploit trust in the most profound.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Way, you know, thinking about it, what really stands out
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: is that contrast you mentioned earlier, the cold calculation of
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the planning the cleanup juxtaposed with the frenzied violence against
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Mona and then going straight to the mosque and the protest.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: It's deeply unsettling that switch between methodical planning brutal violence
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: and then immediately performing public piety was establishing the alibi
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: truly the most important thing in that moment, more than
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: just escape. Or was there some twisted psychological need for
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: him to act as the part of the pious man
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: even seconds after committing such horror. It's a question that
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: really lingers