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Amal's Revenge: A Devilish Tragedy · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's exactly eight zero zero am. Picture a hospital emergency
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: room in Benisuef, Egypt. It's cold, smell sharply of disinfectant.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Usually a smell of hope maybe, but today it feels
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: like failure.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And into this scene Rushes Ushraff, a father carrying
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: his tiny son, Abdullah. He's only two months old, and
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: right behind him is Amal Ashraf's first wife.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: And the baby Abdullah. He's completely unconscious. When they arrive,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: it's immediately clear this is critical.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. The medical team just they swarm him for two hours,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: they fight everything you can imagine, They try it, trying
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: desperately to provide this little.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Baby, two agonizing hours, but it doesn't work. Abdullah is
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: pronounced dead.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: And this is where it shifts right from just tragedy
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to something else, something suspicious.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly because instead of you know, the usual proscener comforting
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the family, releasing the child, the doctors lock the examination
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: room door, abruptly lock a door, locked it, and they
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: call security. They call the police immediately.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay, so what triggered that kind of reaction.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: It was one thing, a tiny detail they noticed while
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: trying to save him. Strange mark on the baby's neck,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: A tiny peculiar puncture wound, something that just shouldn't be there.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: A puncture wound. Okay, that definitely suggests not a natural death,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: not at all.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the deep dive, and that single pincrek
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: is really the final violent act in a story that
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: stretches back a decade, all tangled up in family, pressure
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and culture.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: So to really understand what happened in that hospital room,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: we need to rewind, go back to the beginning of
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: the conflict, back to two thousand and nine.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Right, let's set the scene. We have Ashrov, He's a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: young electrician twenty two years old, living in his family's
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: place in al fashion, and.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: He's genuinely in love with them all. His neighbor he's seventeen.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: They get married, seem very much in love.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Jamaal agrees to the traditional setup, right, living in Ashroff's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: family home.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. They have their own apartment within the family compound,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: but they share household duties. It's a common arrangement.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Okay. So it starts strong, but then the pressure begins
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: almost immediately.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: It does. After their first year, their first child is born,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: a daughter, Miriam.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Which should be pure joy, but it wasn't seen that
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: way by everyone.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: No, the family, Ashraft's parents especially, but it sounds like
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: maybe even Ashraft deep down, they were fiercely disappointed. They
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: desperately wanted a son, and.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: This wasn't just a preference, was it. It was something deeper.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Culturally, oh, absolutely crucial. A son carries the family name.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: He's expected to support the parents later in life, help
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: with work. It's a huge deal. So by having a
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: daughter first, a Mall was immediately seen as having well
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: failed in a.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Key duty, and that disappointment just poisoned things from the start.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: It seems like it corrupted what was initially a loving marriage.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: The conflict wasn't slow building, it sounds like it was instant.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: So a Mall becomes the target constant criticism, mocking all
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: because she had a.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Girl, right, and she's described as being quite intelligent. Her
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: first reaction wasn't direct confrontation, though, it was more subtle.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: So she focused on controlling Ashraft, knowing he loved her,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: trying to use his affection as a shield, maybe adoring
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: the digs from the family as best.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: She could, a survival tactic, basically trying to manage a
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: situation from within.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly, But that kind of pressure cooker environment, it can't last.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Then them all gets pregnant again, and.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: The hope for a son must have been immense, like
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the whole family holding its breath.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: You can only imagine. But it was another daughter, Janna,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: oh boy, and the reaction predictably bad. The mistreatment worsened significantly.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Ashraft's parents apparently started treating them all almost like a servant.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Her value, in their eyes was purely based on producing
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: a male.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Air, which she hadn't done twice right.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: And that seems to be the breaking point for them all.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: She shifts gears from trying to control things subtly, she
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: moves to direct confrontation. In the ultimatum exactly, she tells Ashraff,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: get us our own separate apartment away from your parents,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: or I'm leaving and I'm taking both daughters with me.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: She's demanding independence, a separation from that toxic.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Environment, a clear line in the sand. But Ashraft, despite
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: apparently still loving her, he refuses.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't leave the family home.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: No, the pull of his family, perhaps the pressure from
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: his parents, it was stronger. He wouldn't meet her condition.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So Amal does what she said she would. She leaves,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: takes Maryman Johanna and goes back to her parents, says
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: she won't return unless he gets that separate place.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Now, you'd think Ashraft's parents might be upset, maybe feel
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: some guilt about the marriage breaking down.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: You would think that that's not what happened.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Is it not? At all? The reaction was well relief, hm.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: They were apparently happy she left. They saw her as
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: a burden.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: And they immediately started pressuring Ashraft to marry again, to
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: find someone who could give him a son.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: So replace her.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Essentially, that seems to be exactly the thinking. They even
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: suggested someone Fatima, a relative recently divorced.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: And Ashraf agrees.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: He agrees, apparently felt nothing for Fateoma, no real affection,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: but he did it to satisfy his family, to get
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: that son. They were so obsessed with marriage as a
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: means to an end.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So Amal's gone for a whole year living with her parents,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and during that time Ashraf marries Fatima.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm all finds out, you know, through the
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: great fine neighbors talking. She learns why he married Fatima,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: specifically to have a son.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: That must have just poured fuel on the fire of
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: her resentment.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it confirms she was seen as replaceable, her worth
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: tied only to producing a boy. You could almost feel
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: her resolve hardening, planning something.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And then the inevitable happens that Tima gets pregnant.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: And delivers a boy, Abdullah.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: The family's dream finally fulfilled, the whole reason for the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: second marriage achieved.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: And the joy in Ashrof's family home must have been immense,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: the very joy a'm all was denied twice.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: So this is the turning point. Adah will His birth
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: changes everything for a.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: All completely because suddenly a Maal who'd been adamant about
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: not returning without that separate apartment for a whole year,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: she contacts Ashrov and what does she says? She drops
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: her demand completely, reverses her position, says she wants to
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: come back, claims the girls need to be raised with
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: their father.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Her a year of refusing. The timing seems incredibly suspicious.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's absolutely calculated. She only decides to return after
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: the sun arrives, the very reason she felt replaced. It's
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: like she needed him there for her.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Plan, a plan to re enter the situation on her
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: own terms.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Perhaps seems likely, and Ashraf still deeply attached to him
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: all it seems he agrees instantly, just.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: By oppositions from his parents from Fatima.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Fierce opposition apparently, but he overrides them. He brings a
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: ma all back into the house.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: So now you have Ashraf, Aamal, Facima, two daughters, a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: new baby boy, and the disapproving parents all living together.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the piece such as it was between Ashraff
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: and Fatima during Amal's absence, just evaporates instantly. Conclict flares
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: right back up the tension.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Ama living side by side with the woman who succeeded
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: where she failed exactly.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: And Ama seems to understand she needs a new strategy
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: now that she's back, She needs to reposition herself.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: How does she do that?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: With incredible, almost chilling calculation, she launches this campaign to
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: seem utterly diligent, pious, indispensable.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: What does that look like?
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: She takes over everything, all the cooking, all the cleaning,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: childcare for all the kids. She even starts helping Ashroff
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and his father.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: With the farm work, making herself seem like the perfect, hardworking,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: long suffering first.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Wife, precisely building this image an alibi almost an Ashroff,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: still protective of her, constantly defends her in all the
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: arguments that inevitably erupt.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: She needed everyone, especially Ashrof, to see her as devoted,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: maybe even victimized by the situation.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Right, and then her focus shifts yeah to the absolute
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: center of the family's joy.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: And pride, Abdullah the baby boy.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Yes. She starts showering him with attention, goes out of
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: her way to convince Ashroff that she loves Abdullah like
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: he's her own son, laying the groundwork thickly. And then
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: comes this master stroke of manipulation. Amal offers to breastfeed.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Abdullah, to breastfeed Fatima's.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Son, Yes, alongside her own daughter Jana, who is about
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: one and a half. She volunteers for this incredibly intimate
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: maternal act.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Wow, that is loaded. It's not just about feeding him,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: is it not at all?
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: It's symbolic, It's about claiming a maternal connection, inserting herself
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: right into that primary bond. Psychological power play aims squarely.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: At Fatima and Ashrov How does he react?
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: He buys it completely, sees it as proof of Amal's
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: amazing kindness, her acceptance of the situation.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: He's enthusiastic, but Fatima must have hated it.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Hated it. She understood the implication, the undermining of her role,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: but her objections were ignored or overruled by Ashrof.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: So at this point Amal has maneuvered herself into this
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: position of trust, of apparent devotion, even motherly care towards
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the baby.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly the stage is set. Her plan, it seems, is
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: fully formed. The motive is revenge, pure cold.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Revenge against who just Fatima.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, against everyone, Ashra for marrying someone else to get
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: a son, his family, for the years of humiliation, and yes,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Fatima for being the one to provide that son.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And she knows the most devastating way to hurt all
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: of them is through Abdullah.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: He's the symbol of everything, their dream fulfilled, her replacement validated.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Taking him away shatters their entire world.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: And the breastfeeding offer, the exaggerated care. It's all part
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: of making any potential tragedy seem natural.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Unforseeable, precisely building the perfect alibi, making herself a peer
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: devoted so if something happened, well, who would suspect.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Her Okay, So let's walk through the day it happened.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: What was a routine, pretty.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Set wake up around five am, have breakfast together. By
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: six am, Ashraf and his father head out to work
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: on their farmland, and Fatima she often went with them,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: or shortly after to help feed the live stock.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: They kept leaving them all, leaving them all.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Alone in the house with the children, her two daughters
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: and two month old Abdullah, exactly as she'd likely planned.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: And Abdullah was sleeping, yes, sleeping peacefully in his bed.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: And while he slept, Ama went and got a syringe, okay,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: and she filled it not with medicine, with insecticide, a
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: pesticide they used on the farm.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, insecticide, holdin' stuff.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: And then she went to the sleeping baby and injected
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: him where in the neck, a small easily hidden spot
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: designed for rapid absorption, A deliberate chilling act.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: How long did it take?
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Less than ten minutes? It seems. The horror began Abdullah
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: started seizing, crying uncontrollably.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Family members still in the house must have rushed in.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, chaos erupts and who makes it? Called Ashraf, i'm
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: all and she downplays it. Tells him Abdullah is just
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: a little.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Sick, using a previous minor illness as cover exactly.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: He'd apparently been slightly unwell a couple of days before,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: so she uses that, buys herself time, maybe minimizes the
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: initial panic, so.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Ash doesn't immediately grasp the severity.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Not at first, it seems he thinks it's probably just
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: the lingering sickness. But then his parents, who are frantic
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: by now call him too. That gets him rushing back.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And Fatima is still out in the fields.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, he leaves her there. He gets back to the
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: house and Amala is already dressed holding Abdullah ready.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: To go, so she ensures she's the one who takes
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: him to the hospital with ashra right.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: They race to the emergency room in Benisuf.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Which brings us right back to where we started, the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: sterile room, the desperate attempts to save him.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: And the doctor's finding that tiny damning clue, the puncture mark.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: And not just the mark, right, there was something.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Else, yes, a faint but distinct smell, the smell of
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: pesticide clinging to the baby's neck area. That sealed it
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: for them.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: That's why they locked the door and called the police.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. The police arrived, they see the mark, They note
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: the other signs consistent with poisoning, like fluid or foam
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: around the mouth. Criminal suspicion is immediately.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And Ashraf and Amal are right.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: There, detained on the spot, taken into custody immediately.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: What about Fatima?
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: She arrives later, likely called from the fields rushes to
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: the hospital, only to find out her son is dead
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: and her husband and his first wife are detained. She
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: apparently just collapsed utter devastation.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: The investigation must have moved quickly, then.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Very quickly. It wasn't hard to piece together. Amal was
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: the last one alone with Abulah, the long history of conflict,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: the pressure for a son, the second marriage, a mall's
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: sudden return, her calculated behavior. The motive was crystal clear.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: And when they questioned Amal did the facade hold Not for.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Long, it seems she showed clear signs of tension, nervousness
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: under direct questioning. The pressure got to her.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: She confessed.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, she confessed everything, laid it all out, admitted it
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: was planned, admitted the motive was revenge, revenge against all
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: of them, Ashraf, his parents, Fatima, the whole family unit
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: that she felt had rejected humiliated her.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: This cold calculated revenge she's arrested must have shocked everyone
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: who saw her playing the devoted wife and stepmother.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: A total shock. But the story doesn't quite end there.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: There's a final, really telling.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Consequence which involves Fatima.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, after all this, Fatima demands a divorce from Ashraf.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Okay understandable, But her reason it's significant, isn't it.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: It's incredibly insightful. She doesn't just blame a maul of
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the killer. She points the fingers squarely at Ashroff.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Why him?
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: She says, the real root of the tragedy was his failure,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: his failure to be fair, to maintain justice and balance
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: between his two wives. He created, or at least allowed,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: the toxic environment where Amal's resentment could fester and grow
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: into such monstrous violence.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Wow, she's saying, his weakness, his inability to manage the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: situation justly essentially enabled the murder.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: That's the implication, a profound indictment. You see this whole
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: chain reaction. A marriage starting with love, warped by intense
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: cultural pressure for a son, leading to jealousy, mistreatment, a
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: second marriage purely for breeding.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Purposes, Amal's calculated or turn, the elaborate setup, and finally
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: this horrific targeted murder and the.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Method itself, the poison, the injection. After weeks of building
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: that perfect alibi, it just speaks volumes about how cold
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: and premeditated it all was. Yeah, her confession might have
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: been quick under pressure, but the crime itself was anything
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: but impulsive.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So if Fedmah was right, if the core issue was
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Ashroff's failure to ensure fairness and justice between his wives,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: creating that breeding ground for rage, it leaves you with
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: a really unsettling question. How much responsibility does someone bear
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: when their own lack of fairness, their inability to manage
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: the complexities they created, allows resentment to spiral into unimaginable violence.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: That's something to really think about long after this deep
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: dive is over,