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The Nasr City Massacre: The Fate of Nanis and Her Children · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's go back. It's nineteen ninety seven Cairo. For a
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: growing middle class, there's this real sense of confidence, of security,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and for a couple like engineer Hani and his wife,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: engineer Nannies, life in Naser City felt well, it felt perfect.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: It really did. I mean, you have two highly respected professionals,
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  Speaker 2: they're doing well financially, raising two young children, had Deal
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  Speaker 2: and Annis in this lovely comfortable apartment.
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  Speaker 1: Their whole world was built on a kind of structure,
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  Speaker 1: a routine.
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  Speaker 2: Especially Nadas, she was known for it. She was this
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  Speaker 2: successful modern woman and her life was just built on dependability.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And it was that very dependability, that routine that was
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the first sign something was terribly wrong.
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  Speaker 2: Right, So every morning, around eight am, Haini leaves for work.
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  Speaker 1: He says goodbye to his wife, his kids and heads
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  Speaker 1: out and then like clockwork, Nanas calls her father, Ahmed Fuad.
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  Speaker 2: It was their thing, a quick check in just to
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  Speaker 2: start the day.
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  Speaker 1: But on this one morning, that call never came.
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  Speaker 2: The father. He tries calling over.
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  Speaker 1: And over, rings or there's just silence.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: And you listening to this, you have to imagine that feeling.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: It's not panic, not at first, no, it's just that
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  Speaker 2: deep sinking certainty that something isn't right because a habit,
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  Speaker 2: a loved one has been broken.
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  Speaker 1: By noon, he can't ignore it anymore. The silence is
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  Speaker 1: just too loud. Ah Met Fuwad gets in his car
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  Speaker 1: and drives street to the apartment in Nusser City.
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  Speaker 2: He gets there, he sees the husband's car is gone,
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  Speaker 2: so Honey is at work.
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  Speaker 1: He starts knocking loudly, insistently, but nothing.
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  Speaker 2: He finds the doorman, who says, yeah, Honey left hours ago,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: but he's sure, absolutely sure that Nanni's and the children
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: never came out.
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  Speaker 1: And the commotion, the father's obvious panic. It starts to
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  Speaker 1: draw up the neighbors.
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  Speaker 2: They all gather at this lock door, and they all
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  Speaker 2: share this awful feeling that the family has to be inside.
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  Speaker 1: So they make the decision and they have to break
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  Speaker 1: the door down.
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  Speaker 2: The moment they get inside, everything just stops. All the noise,
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  Speaker 2: the shouting, it just.
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  Speaker 1: Ceases scene as it's pure horror.
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  Speaker 2: Nanie and her little girl, Hadil are right there on
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  Speaker 2: the floor. They're soaked in.
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  Speaker 1: Blood, stab wounds. It's brutal and it's obvious.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: But the little boy Annis he's only two he's not there.
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  Speaker 1: The father just on pure terror and instinct. He starts
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: tearing through the rooms. He's just screaming, where is the boy?
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  Speaker 2: And they find him inside the bedroom wardrobe.
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  Speaker 1: He'd been strangled. There was a scarf wrapped so tightly
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  Speaker 1: around his neck.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: The normal, comfortable, predictable world of this Cairo neighborhood was
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  Speaker 2: just obliterated.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: This deep dive is into a case that was so shocking,
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  Speaker 1: so violent, that it completely sees an entire nation. This
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  Speaker 1: is the nineteen ninety seven Naser City massacre.
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  Speaker 2: So when the investigators arrive, they're walking into an absolute nightmare.
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  Speaker 2: But it's also from a professional standpoint, a paradox.
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  Speaker 1: Why was it such a challenge? What made it so contradictory?
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  Speaker 1: From the very beginning.
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  Speaker 2: You have to understand the context here. This wasn't just
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: another crime. It became a massive public opinion case. Almost instantly,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the late president Mohammed Hasni Mubarik was getting personal updates,
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  Speaker 2: so the pressure on the security forces was almost unprecedented.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: They're dealing with public fury, political pressure and instead of
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  Speaker 2: clues that just don't add up.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's break down those contradictions.
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  Speaker 2: What's the first one the entry, so the father had
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: to physically break down the door right right, But the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: forensics team confirmed very quickly the killer's entry was natural.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Nannies let them in, she knew them exactly.
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  Speaker 2: She was found in the kitchen. She was in the
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: middle of preparing tea. This wasn't a surprise home invasion.
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  Speaker 2: She was hosting someone. There was a level of trust.
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  Speaker 1: But that completely clashes with the second contradiction. The motive.
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  Speaker 2: It screams robbery. I mean her gold jewelry, which she
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  Speaker 2: wore a lot of it was all gone, a large
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: amount of cash gone, even expensive electronics were taken.
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  Speaker 1: So the motive is clearly theft. But the violence, the
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  Speaker 1: violence is something else entirely.
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  Speaker 2: That's the paradox, the overkill stabbing. Nonnyson had deal so
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: many times strangling a two year old boy. That suggests
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  Speaker 2: a crime of passion of rage, not a cold calculated robbery.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what stalled everything.
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  Speaker 2: It's what stalled everything, this mix of familiarity, a planned
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  Speaker 2: theft of high value items, and then this explosion of
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  Speaker 2: shocking violence. The police had to start with the first
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  Speaker 2: circle of trust.
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  Speaker 1: The husband. It's always the husband.
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  Speaker 2: It's always the husband, engineer Hanyini, but he was cleared quickly,
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  Speaker 2: very quickly. His alibi was ironclad, he was at work,
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  Speaker 2: and everyone absolutely, everyone confirmed they had an excellent relationship.
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  Speaker 1: So they move on. Neighbors, family, anyone who knew about
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  Speaker 1: their wealth.
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  Speaker 2: All dead ends. Then they get this tip from a
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  Speaker 2: friend about an old admirer.
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  Speaker 1: This feels like something out of a movie.
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  Speaker 2: It really does. It was a man Nannis had rejected
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  Speaker 2: years ago, and the coincidence was, well, it was unbelievable.
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  Speaker 2: He worked abroad, but he just happened to be in
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  Speaker 2: Egypt on vacation at that exact.
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  Speaker 1: Time and was s to fly out the next day.
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  Speaker 2: The very next day. So of course they detain him,
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  Speaker 2: they investigate him fully, but.
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  Speaker 1: He's also cleared. So the police are just stuck. They're
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: chasing these theories of passion and jealousy, but the physical
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  Speaker 1: evidence keeps screaming a different motive.
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  Speaker 2: Decisely, they're running out of leads and the political clock
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  Speaker 2: is ticking. The killers were known to the victim, they
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  Speaker 2: were after valuables, but they left no trace.
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  Speaker 1: And this is where the real police work begins, not
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  Speaker 1: the obvious stuff, but the small details.
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  Speaker 2: This is where the whole case pivots. The investigators just
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: keep talking to Hani over and over, hoping for one
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  Speaker 2: tiny detail he might.
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  Speaker 1: Have forgotten, and he remembers something.
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  Speaker 2: He remembers something so mundane and it almost seems irrelevant.
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  Speaker 2: About fifteen days before the murders, he'd hired some painters
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  Speaker 2: decorators to do some minor work in the apartment.
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  Speaker 1: And there was something strange about them.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Hani recalled that they deliberately left parts of the
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  Speaker 2: job unfinished. They told him they'd have to come.
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  Speaker 1: Back to complete it, which sounds like they were just
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  Speaker 1: engineering or reason to return.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: It was exactly that, because they did come back about
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  Speaker 2: a week before the crime, but not to paint.
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  Speaker 1: They said they needed to remeasure.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Claimed they'd made a mistake in their calculations. It gave
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: them a legitimate second entry into the apartment, a chance
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  Speaker 2: to scout.
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  Speaker 1: Everything, the layout, where the valuables were, Honey's work schedule.
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  Speaker 2: It was pre crime reconnaissance, plain and simple.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So now the police have something real. They have descriptions,
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  Speaker 1: a narrow group of suspects, and.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: They make a brilliant strategic move. They don't just focus
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  Speaker 2: on the painters themselves, they launch a parallel investigation focused
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  Speaker 2: on the stolen goods.
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  Speaker 1: They figured the killers would need to get.
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  Speaker 2: Rid of them fast exactly. They printed up flyers notices
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  Speaker 2: with detailed descriptions of the stolen electronics, serial numbers, everything.
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  Speaker 2: They sent them out to every gold An electronics dealer
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  Speaker 2: in the area.
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  Speaker 1: Jause a gamble, a huge gamble.
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  Speaker 2: They bet that these weren't professional thieves, they were amateurs
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  Speaker 2: who would be stupid enough to try and sell the
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  Speaker 2: stuff locally.
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  Speaker 1: And the call come in.
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  Speaker 2: Almost immediately an electronics dealer. He says, I have two
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  Speaker 2: young men here right now trying to sell me appliances
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  Speaker 2: that match your flyer perfectly.
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  Speaker 1: And what really stood out to the dealer how little
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  Speaker 1: they knew.
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  Speaker 2: They had no idea what the items were actually worth.
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  Speaker 2: They were just trying to get rid of them for
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  Speaker 2: quick cash.
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  Speaker 1: It was a massive red flag.
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  Speaker 2: The police told the dealer to stall them, just keep
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  Speaker 2: him there. Within minutes, officers arrive and arrest both.
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  Speaker 1: Men, Mohammed Zakaria all one and Sayed Zakaria all one, two.
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  Speaker 2: Of the painters Hani had hired the stolen appliances in
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  Speaker 2: their hands, confirmed everything.
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  Speaker 1: And faced with that kind of evidence, they just they.
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  Speaker 2: Broke immediately, they confessed everything, and they revealed who the
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: true architect of the crime was, their cousin, their cousin,
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  Speaker 2: Mohammed Krasheit, the lead decorator. And this is where the
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  Speaker 2: true brutal motive finally becomes clear.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't just about the gold she was wearing, No.
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  Speaker 2: That's what caught his eye. But the fatal moment, the
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  Speaker 2: moment the plan was truly born, was when Hani asked
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Nanas to get the deposit money to pay the workers.
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  Speaker 2: Krishid watched her, He watched her open a bag full
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  Speaker 2: of cash, and in that second he knew what they
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  Speaker 2: had and exactly where they kept it.
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  Speaker 1: And he decided then and there he would rob them,
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  Speaker 1: and he was prepared to kill anyone who got in
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  Speaker 1: his way.
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  Speaker 2: Their first attempt actually failed because Hani was still at home,
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  Speaker 2: so they had to adjust the plan.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Cidy, one of the cousins. He would be the lookout downstairs.
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  Speaker 1: His only job was to make sure Hani was gone right, and.
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  Speaker 2: Then Khorsheid and Mohammed would go up to the apartment
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  Speaker 2: to carry out the attack.
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  Speaker 1: And Nanas just opens the door. She thinks they're there
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  Speaker 1: to finish the painting.
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  Speaker 2: She even offers them tea. They ads for a cleaning cloth,
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  Speaker 2: and she turns her back walks into her kitchen to
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  Speaker 2: get them refreshments.
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  Speaker 1: For the men who were about to murder her.
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  Speaker 2: Kashid follows her in and immediately starts suffocating her with
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  Speaker 2: his bare hands.
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  Speaker 1: And she begs for her life.
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  Speaker 2: She pleads with them, take everything, take the goal, the money,
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  Speaker 2: just leave me and my children alone.
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  Speaker 1: But they ignored her completely.
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  Speaker 2: Mohammed joins in with a knife. He stabs her again
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  Speaker 2: and again to make sure she's dead. The details are,
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  Speaker 2: they're just horrific. They strip the gold from her body
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  Speaker 2: and make sure she was gone.
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  Speaker 1: Then they call the lookout say It upstairs to help
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  Speaker 1: with the robbery.
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  Speaker 2: And the focus turns to the daughter, Adil. She was
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: just playing nearby. They attack her next, strangle her.
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  Speaker 1: Stab her, and there's still one more witness.
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  Speaker 2: The baby, two year old Annis. They grab him and
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: they shove him into the wardrobe while they ransacked the
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  Speaker 2: apartment looking for that bag of cash.
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  Speaker 1: But he starts crying.
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  Speaker 2: Loudly from inside the closet and they panic. They're afraid
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  Speaker 2: the neighbors.
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  Speaker 1: Will hear, so they open the wardrobe door, and.
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  Speaker 2: What happens next is just the cruelest, most heartbreaking detail
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  Speaker 2: in this entire story.
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  Speaker 1: The little boy, this terrified two year.
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  Speaker 2: Old, He jumps out of the closet and runs straight
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  Speaker 2: into the arms of Mohammed Kershed.
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  Speaker 1: Seeking comfort from the man who had just murdered his
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  Speaker 1: mother and his sister.
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  Speaker 2: Because she just takes the child and he strangles him.
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  Speaker 2: He uses one of his mother's own scarves to finish
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  Speaker 2: the act.
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  Speaker 1: With the confessions, with all the physical evidence, the trial
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: moved at a speed that was almost unheard of.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: It was incredibly fast. All three of them, Mohammad Khusheed
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: and his cousins Mohammed and Sayd al One were convicted
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: and sentenced to death.
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  Speaker 1: And if you connect that speed back to the pressure
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, you.
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  Speaker 2: Can see the entire system responding to this massive public trauma.
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  Speaker 2: The speed wasn't just about the evidence being clear. It
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: was a direct response to a public demand for justice,
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  Speaker 2: for a reckoning.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And that demand led to a conclusion that nobody saw coming,
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  Speaker 1: a conclusion that defined this case forever because.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Of the intense public interest, because the presidency was following
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: it personally, a presidential order was issued.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: The execution of the three men was to be carried out.
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  Speaker 2: Live live on the official state television station, Egyptian Channel one.
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  Speaker 1: For the entire country to see.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Think about that this wasn't a quiet, private execution. This
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: was a public spectacle, a televised reckoning. It was meant
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  Speaker 2: to show the absolute power of the state and to
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  Speaker 2: serve as the ultimate deterrent.
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  Speaker 1: It says so much about the level of societal shock,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the feeling that something so extreme was necessary to restore
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: a sense of order, a sense of safety.
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  Speaker 2: And lee's a really powerful question for you, the listener,
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  Speaker 2: to think about. What is that decision to broadcast an
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: execution live tell us about the role of the media
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: and public opinion in these huge, high profile capital crimes,
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  Speaker 2: And what does it say about the ethical lines we're
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: willing to cross when we use televised justice as a
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: deterrent for acts of set, calculated brutal violence.