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Lela Ghabra: Three Perspectives on a Dark Night · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's set the scene. We are dropping you
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: right into Minya, governor at Egypt. It's twenty fourteen. Think
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of a place where life is pretty traditional, quiet village,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: everybody knows everybody, you know the type.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, discretion is basically impossible there. And for six years,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: this couple, Naughty and Ruquea, they'd really tried hard to
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: build a private life, a strong relationship.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Right, the community saw them as well, unbreakable totally.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: But that bond, I mean it had survived a lot distance, money, troubles,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: even losing a child. Wow, But it was about to
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: be just shattered in one afternoon, a single day.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And the locals later called it the Dusty Night, didn't they?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Leila Goabra exactly.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: It translates to something like a dark, chaotic, really humiliating scandal.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: And the thing is the details. They come from a
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: three different people, Madi Ruquia and a third man, Abdullah.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And every single story.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Conflicts completely, total contradictions.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's walk through it. It's one point zero zero pm.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Naught's rushing home.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: That's right. He left at seven am for his business
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: but got this regent call forgot is Id a colleague
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: needed it, like right now, so he's.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Probably annoyed, just want to grab it and get back out.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Pretty mundane, stuck exactly. But this mundane moment becomes the
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: flash point. He opens his front door. Hmm, it's chaos,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Ruquaia his wife. She's sprinting down the stairs towards him,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: towards the door, clearly panicked, really agitated.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: He must collide right right there in the doorway.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: They do. But instead of stopping her, instead of asking
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: what's wrong, why she's screaming?
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Not?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: He hears something else from upstairs. Yeah, a strange noise
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: muffled coming from their bedroom, the marital bedroom in.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: The second floor, and he just ignores his terrified.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Wife, completely ignores her. That's the critical moment, isn't it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: He pushes past Rekuya, runs upstairs and finds Abdullah, a
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: local guy from the village, sitting right there in their bedroom,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: looking like they'd been well comfortable together.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, and Noddy's conclude is immediate.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Betrayal, instantaneous, Whether it was willing or not, that's what
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: he saw.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: So his reaction it's not words.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: No, it's immedia raw cure impulse. He doesn't even confront them.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: He races back downstairs again by passing Requiet straight to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: the kitchen, straight to the kitchen drawer, grabs a knife,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: runs back up, oh wow, and stabs Abdullah four times.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Four times.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Abdullah collapses bleeding everywhere. Not he's in shock now right
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: runs back downstairs, but Requia is gone, vanished in the.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Chaos, and the screams requests screams as she fled Abdullah's
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: cries for help.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: The neighbors must have heard instantly, neighbors, relatives. They swarm
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the house. They find Abdullah on the floor, bleeding heavily.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: They separate the two men, and that first quick judgment
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: is made by everyone there.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Not he killed Abdullah.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: That's the immediate conclusion. So our mission today really is
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: to sift through these stories, not use requoes Abdullah's, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: try to figure out what really happened, the motives, the actions,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the fallout from this Leylagabra.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: It's fascinating though, because to get why Noddy reacted with
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: such intensity, you need to understand the relationship he thought
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: was just destroyed.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, This wasn't just any marriage Naughty. He only had
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: intermediate schooling, went off to Libya when he was nineteen
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: back in two thousand and.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Four, worked hard, saved money for years.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just so he could come back and marry Requia.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: They were childhood sweethearts.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: So he proposes they get married in two thousand and eight.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: And you said they were very private.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Deeply committed to privacy. They made a conscious pact no
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: third party ever interferes in our marriage. They guarded that intensely,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: like religiously, and.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: That bond got tested early on, didn't it, which kind
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: of solidified it. It did.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: While Naughty was back in Libya working, Ruquia got seriously ill,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: lost their first baby, a son, Zerah, and Naughty he
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: dropped everything, came straight back, stayed with her until she recovered.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Everyone saw how devoted they were, so things were strong.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Then instability really came in twenty eleven.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, political unrest in Libya meant not he had to
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: come home for good. Requia was apparently thrilled.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: And he used his savings started a business, His.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: On trade business, household Appliances, did really well, built a
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: good reputation, quality stuff, flexible payments. Business grew and they
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: had a daughter. Blessed with a daughter. Yeah, so you
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: picture it, quiet, stable, successful life happy family.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: But success, it can attract the wrong kind of attention,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: can it? Resentment?
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Exactly, And that's the key context for the violence. Not
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: He's now twenty eight, self made guy, respected, doing well
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: even with limited education. And then there's Abdullah, the man
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: in the bedroom, the very same lives in the same village,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: same age, same intermediate education. But he's working as a
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: supermarket clerk, a routine job.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And he sees Naughty's.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Success and it just eats away at him, pure corrosive envy.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: He felt Naughtys success was unfair, made him feel stuck, hopeless.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: This wasn't just quiet jealousy, though, was it. They'd clashed before?
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the sources are clear on this. This envy had
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: our already caused multiple actual fights between them before that afternoon.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, So Abdullah showing up in Natty's house, in their
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: private space, regardless of the reason, it's already loaded history hostility. Yeah,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: maybe even premeditation.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Definitely loaded a deliberate strike at Naughty's life, his happiness.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Right, Let's jump forward a bit. The stabbing happens around
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: one pm.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: What happens next, well, hours pass by six zero pm.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: The police get wind of it through secret intelligence sources, interestingly,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: that there's been a murder at Naughty's place, Abdullah's.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Dead, but officially nothing.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Officially silence, huh, no report filed, not from the neighbors
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: who rushed in, Nobody, the community just shut down.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: That's incredible, the local reaction, it really is.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: When the security forces finally arrive at Naughty's house, they
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: find people just sitting outside, visibly jumpy, nervous, but try
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and act totally normal. And what do they say, Oh,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: just a simple fight happens all the time between Noddy
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: and Abdullah, you know, just rivalry.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: They're actively downplaying, yeah, denying the blood, the stabbing, the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: possible death completely.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: And that tells you everything about the village priorities, doesn't it.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: In these tight communities, police showing up a public scandal
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: about honor maybe adultery that's often seen as worse than
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: the violence itself.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: They're trying to manage the narrative, erase the public record, save.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Face, exactly, protect the community's image above all else.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: So when the police ask for Naddy.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: And ruquea gone vanished and the neighbour's stories about where
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: they went all muddled, conflicting the police immediately smell a rat,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: a local conspiracy to hide the crime.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: But then the first big twist Abdullah.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the police track down the supposed dead man, Abdullah,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: and guess what.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: He's alive.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: He's alive at his own home, resting, or maybe more accurately, hiding.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: So police confront him.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: They find him. He's clearly weak, obviously injured, but he
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: sticks to this totally fabricated story.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: What does he say?
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: T a fight with Noddy, sure, but insists it was minor,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: and crucially, he says it happened in the street.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: He denies being inside the house at.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: All, absolutely denies it flat out.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: But the evidence of the cover up must be clear
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: by now, Oh it is.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: The police quickly learned the neighbors hadn't just sat around.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: They'd secretly taken him to a private clinic, got him
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: stitched up, specifically to avoid any official.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Report, and the stab wounds unfirmed.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Four of them, thankfully superficial, not life threatening, but serious
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: enough to need that immediate medical help.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: So Abdullah's lie the community helping him. It's a deliberate
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: attempt to control everything. He gets detained. Right, too many inconsistencies, yep.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: They detain him. The story just doesn't hold water.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the victim is alive and lying, but Requoea
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: is still missing and Noddy, what did he do during
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: those missing hours? Where did he go?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Well? Noddy eventually comes back to his house later that evening,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: and when the police confront him, he's clearly agitated, highly stressed.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Does he try the same story? The minor scuffle.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Initial oh yeah, prize the neighbor's line, but the police
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: pushed back. They know about the clinic, the stab wounds
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Abdollah being inside. They press him and he breaks. He
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: breaks down, confirms his side of the one point zero
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: bo PM story, coming home, finding Abdullah in the bedroom,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: the absolute shock, grabbing the knife, scabbing him, fleeing in
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: disbelief after the crowd showed.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Up, so he admits the stabbing.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: He does, but the police feel like he's still holding
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: something back at those hours he was gone.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: They press him harder, and that leads to the second act.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: The second shocking confession, an act of well premeditated vengeance
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: against Ruquia, the woman he believed had just destroyed everything.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: What does he say, haven't.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: He explains that after Rekaya ran off relatives somehow got
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: in touch with her. They told her Abdollah was alive,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: not dead. They convinced her to meet Noddy sort things out.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Said he'd calmed down.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: And she agreed. Where did they meet?
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: They met at a public park.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: But no, he hadn't calmed down at all, Haddy, not
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: even close.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: He was still consumed by this rage, this profound sense
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: of betrayal, that violation of their private pact.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: He saw her as the cause of his humiliation completely.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: He lost control, and he strangled her with his bare
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: hands until well until he thought she was dead. He
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: thought he killed her, believed it entirely.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And what he does next it's chillingly symbolic, isn't it?
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: It really is. He carried her body, her supposedly dead body,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: to the cemetery, which morbidly was right near.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Their house, and opened the tomb your family too.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: The very tomb where their deceased son lay. He placed
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Ruquoia's body inside, right next to their child, sealed the door,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: and just walked back home.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: As if he'd contained the scandal, put the wreckage of
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: his marriage back with their lost child.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: That seems to be the psychology, an act of revenge,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: but also a way of sealing it all away, closing
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: that chapter in the most final way possible, Or so
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: he thought.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: But this story just keeps twisting. The police have his confession.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Now, right, so guided by they move fast. It's late,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: around eleven zero pm, hours after the strangling. They head
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: to the cemetery. They need to recover the body, right
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: for the official report.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: It must have been pitch black.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Pitch black. They're using flashlights searching for the tomb, trying
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: to get it open.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: And they do.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: What they find is well, it's staggering. Honestly, require wasn't dead.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: She's alive inside the tomb, sitting bolt upright inside the tomb, alive,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: with just this look of absolute paralyzing terror on her face.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. What are the police do?
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: They get Naughty away from there, immediately take Requia to safety.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: They're worried he might snap again, right then and there.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: And now finally we get the third story.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Requia's account, the final narrative and potentially the most crucial one.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: So what's her version? Does she admit to an affair?
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Not at all. Her story completely refutes any adultery. She says.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: She just popped out quickly to buy some honey, stop
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: to chat with a neighbor for a moment, left the
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: front door slightly ajar okay. When she came back inside,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Abdullah was there already inside the house.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And why was he there, according to.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Her, revenge purely revenge against Naughty, she claims. Bullah immediately
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: started arguing with her, saying he was going to assault her,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: specifically to break Naughty's spirit because of their past fights,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: the envy.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: So she's saying it was an attempted assault, not an affair,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and he dragged her upstairs.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: It's a claim, dragged her upstairs to the bedroom, and.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: She was fighting him off when Noughty.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Came home, exactly struggling against him. Then she hears Naughty
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: at the door. She panics, runs downstairs, crashes.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Into Noughty, and she realizes instantly.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: She realizes Noughty will never believe her. He'll only see
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: the shame, the humiliation of another man in their bedroom.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: He won't believe it was an.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Attack, So she just pushes past him and runs, screaming.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Pushes past, screaming, flees the house. Convinced her only option
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: is to get away, maybe go to relatives in Cairo,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: because Noddy's rage will be uncontrollable.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: That explains her flight. But what about the meeting in
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the park, the strangling.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: She confirms she agreed to meet him, believed the relatives
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: when they said he'd calm down because Abdula was alive.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: But the moment he attacked her in the park, she knew.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Knew he intended to kill.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Her instantly, and her survival instinct. It's incredible, an extraordinary
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: active presence of mind. She played dead.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: During the strangulation. She faked being dead.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: She faked it, went limp, stopped breathing, visibly, held absolutely.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: Still wow, and she describes him after she describes feeling
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: naughty kiss her head, apologized for having to do it,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: still believing she betrayed him, and then carrying her to
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: the tomb.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: And she stayed motionless in the dark next to her.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Son, completely motionless, tracked in the pitch black tomb next
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: to her dead son for two terrifying hours until she
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: finally heard the police outside.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Just incredible. Okay, let's try pieces together three narratives.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Right, You've got naughty a crime of passion, justified rage
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: against adultery, leading to what he thought was a double
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: murder driven by humiliation that primal response to betrayal.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Then Abdullah a clear lie, minor street fight, all designed
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: to cover up why he was really in that house,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: protecting himself, protecting the village's image.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And finally, Ruquoya attempted rape motivated by this external rivalry,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: a terrifying escape, followed by successfully faking her own death
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: for two hours to survive, and her decision to fake
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: death driven by knowing the cultural judgment for just appearing
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: guilty even if innocent, was unavoidable.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: The aftermath is just as bizarre, isn't it completely.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Noddy is reportedly stunned that both his victims are alive,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: but Kuia's reaction is what really stands out.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: She forgave him after being strangled and left for dead
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: in the tomb next to her son.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Shockingly, yes, forgave. Noddy almost immediately stated publicly she understood
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: why he reacted the way he did given the circumstances.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: That's hard to comprehend from the outside.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: It points to those deep, complex cultural and psychological dynamics.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Doesn't it that traumatic bomb Natty's violent impulse wasn't seen
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: as purely criminal perhaps, but as a tragic, understandable, if
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: extreme consequence of his love and humiliation.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: It goes back to that intense privacy pack. They had
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the ultimate.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Violation exactly guarding that relationship was everything and the police
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: investigation does he figure out the truth? Well, the official
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: word was just that something was wrong with all three stories.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: The details didn't quite mesh perfectly with any single version, so.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Legally ambiguous perhaps, but undeniably at Dusty Knight, a catastrophe
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: for everyone, especially require two hours in.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: That tomb unimaginable.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: So thinking about this tangled mess, what really stands out
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: to you that community cover up, for instance, was it
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: just about protecting naughty or something bigger, like denying such
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a violation of honor could even happen there.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. It feels like a bit of both,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: maybe protecting one of their own, but also this deep
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: seated cultural need to maintain order to keep scandal private
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: even when violence has occurred, pushing it back under the rug.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Erro Quae's forgiveness. Yeah, given Nanni's extreme actions, what does
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that immediate forgiveness tell us about the pressure she might
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: have felt, the complex mix of fear, maybe devotion may
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: be survival within that relationship.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: It suggests incredibly complex expectations. Doesn't it the idea that
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: even an attempt on her life, horrifying as it was,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: could somehow be contextualized or excused if it stemmed from
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: that perceived betrayal of intense love and honor. The absolute truth.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: It feels like it's still buried somewhere in the shadows
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: of those conflicting stories.