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Binding Magic and Brutal Murder: The Cairo Businessman Who Killed to Break a Curse · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, picture this Bin Al Sariat Doki, Cairo. It's two
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight. Imagine the heat, you know, that heavy
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: mid afternoon stillness around three thirty pm.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Just seems like any other day exactly inside this pretty
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: normal looking house. Mohammed Abdullah, a local businessman. People knew
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: respect it even is visiting his fiance's family.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Seems totally routine, right up.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Until it wasn't. One of the sisters and he had
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: sister she just made tea was heading upstairs to the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: third floor, and then this, this blood curdling scream just
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: rips through the quiet.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Oh man. So she runs back down.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, races down, and what she finds is just absolute horror. Muhammed.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: He's got knives and he's attacking her mother, stabbing her
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: again and again.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: How bad was it?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: He stabbed her seven times and then he completely severed
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: her head.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: God, unbelievable. What does the sister do.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: She managed to scramble, locked herself behind a door, started
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: screaming out the window, you know, trying to get help
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: from neighbors. But it wasn't over, not even close. The
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: four sister who'd been cleaning upstairs, come stumbling out of
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: the house into the street. She's covered in blood herself,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: wounds on her abdomen.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Her neck, and she tells people what happened.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's shouting it out to the crowd that's starting together.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Mohammed killed her mother.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: He killed her, and Mohammed follows her out.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: He bursts out onto the street. He's got two knives
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: now glinting, chases her down right there in front of everyone,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: and just keeps stabbing her until she collapses.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: This is happening in broad daylight on the street.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Total chaos, and right at that moment, his fiance, Nihad,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: she arrives. She walks straight into this, this unfolding massacre,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: sees her sister.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: On the ground and Mohammed turns on her.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Instantly turns the knives on Nihad. Seven quick fatal stab wounds.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: It was brutal over in minutes, three.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: People dead by a man known as this like successful self.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Made guy, a pillar of the community, suddenly a public executioner.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: It's shocking, Okay, we have to unpack this. How does
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: someone like that commit such a horrific crime. He later
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: claimed he wasn't even in control, that something else was
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: guiding him right and.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: To understand that claim. You really have to go back
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: back before the violence, back to how he even got
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: connected with this family in the first place.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Let's do that. So who is Mohammad Abdullah before all this?
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Go back to nineteen ninety six. He's twenty two, He's ambitious,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: finished his technical studies, saved up and opened his own business,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: a stationary and photocopying shop.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And where was this shop?
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Smart location, right next to Cairo University in Bainel Sarayat.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Perfect spot.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So business was good?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it took off immediately, students, faculty, constant demand.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Within just two years, he's buying more machines, expanding. He
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: becomes the sole provider for his parents, his for siblings.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Build a reputation for himself, reliable.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Hard working, absolutely known everywhere as this responsible, successful young man.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: He'd really made something of himself.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, so he's established successful.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Then what then comes two thousand and two. That's the
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: year he meets Nihat. She's from the area, beautiful, and
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: she starts coming into his shop.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Pretty often, just happening to stop buy.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Well, the feeling was maybe not entirely accidental. There was
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: definitely an interaction mutual, right from the start.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: So they start seeing each other, they do.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: It develops into a relationship quite public, but her family
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: had a condition no official engagement until she finished her schooling.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, so a waiting period. How long?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: It ended up being a three year courtship. And during
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: this time things started to get weird. People close to
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Mohammad kept warning him, but vaguely warning him about what,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: just saying things like, uh, you should ask about Nahad's
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: family properly, you know, that kind of veiled.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Comment implying something wasn't right, but not saying what exactly.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: In a tight community like that, vague warnings often mean
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: there's something serious everyone knows but is hesitant to spell out.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: He knew her father was well comfortable, owned properties, ran a.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Small library, but not where the money really came from.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Nope, totally unknown, And these constant sort of nudges and
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: warnings suggested there was some darker family history lurking there.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: And how is Mohammed During this three year period you
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: mentioned things got weird?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: His personality started to shift. The successful, decisive guy became well,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: almost subservient, especially around Nahad and her mother. Subservient how
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: like he just automatically do whatever they asked, no questions.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: He started feeling like he wasn't making his own decisions anymore,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: losing that sense of control.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: That's a significant change from the driven businessman. Huge change.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: And then things escalated publicly. Suddenly, posters of Nahad appeared
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: all over the.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Area, posters like election posters.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: No, no pictures of her, but they were defaced, covered
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: in these really harsh handwritten insults and slurs. It was
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: a public shaming.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Wow, who would do that?
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Well, here's the twist. Despite their public long term relationship,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Nihad's family immediately pointed the finger at Muhammad. They accused him, yes,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: filed a formal police complain, accused him of making and
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: spreading the posters. They actually tried to have him jailed
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: for it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Wait, they wanted to send their daughter's long term boyfriend,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: potential fiance to jail.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Based on what it makes no sense right, pure betrayal. Thankfully,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: he managed to prove it wasn't him. The handwriting was completely.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Different, so the charges were dropped.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, charges dropped, and understandably the relationship completely ended right
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: then and there.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I bet his friends were relieved.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Oh totally. Everyone around him was like, congratulations, you're finally
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: free from that. They saw it as dodging a bullet.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't over for Muhammed, was.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: It not even slightly. The next four months, he just
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: fell apart, became super withdrawn, couldn't focus on his business
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: at all. It started to.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Suffer just heartbreak or something else, it seemed like more.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: He started uh seeing things, visions of niehad having vivid
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: dreams where he thought she was standing right in front
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: of him.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Sounds like intense obsession.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Or as his friends started suggesting openly, maybe something darker.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: They started saying she'd put a spell on him. Black magic.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Black magic. Okay, So that belief starts entering the picture, and.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: This is where you really have to understand the cultural context.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: The specific term used was sir al robot binding.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Magic, binding magic. What does that imply?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: The belief is that it gives the caster complete emotional
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: and psychological control over the victim. It essentially binds the
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: person to them, making it impossible to leave physically or emotionally,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: even if they want to.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So his friends thought he wasn't just heartbroken, he was
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: magically bound to her.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: That was the growing belief, and it seemed to explain
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: his inability to move on the visions, and.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Then after four months of this torment.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Nihad physically reappeared, just showed up again.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: In Mohammad's reaction.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Instant joy, ecstasy, almost he felt like his life was back,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: like everything was right again. The binding, whether real orological,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: just snap back into places.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, But what about the whole police report thing, them
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: trying to jail him.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: This is the truly baffling part, the sign of how
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: far gone he was. He went to her family and apologized.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: He apologized for.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: What get this, He apologized for his reaction to them
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: falsely accusing him and trying to get him arrested.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Hold on, He apologized for being upset that they tried
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to ruin his life. That's not rational, not at all.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: It's complete submission. It suggests his own logical processes, his
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: self preservation instincts, were just overridden. It feeds right into
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: that idea of being controlled, doesn't it.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It absolutely does. That sounds less like forgiveness and more
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: like what like the binding magic.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: They talked about precisely, and the family they accepted his
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: apology immediately, didn't badeny, And in the same meeting he
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: proposed marriage, and they agreed just like that on the spot.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: So this broken, toxic situation suddenly becomes a formal engagement
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: set to last a year. It basically cemented whatever in
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: fluence the mother and ny had had over him.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: How did that engagement year go for him?
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: It was torture? By his account, he felt completely exploited.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: He was absolutely convinced by this point that he was
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: under the spell the sir Al Robot. He felt totally
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: out of control.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Did anything happen to reinforce that belief?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Yes. He started hearing things from neighbors, whispers that Nihad's
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: mother wasn't just some ordinary woman, She secretly practiced magic
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: for people, rituals, spells, that sort of thing.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, So community rumor starts to back.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Up his fear right, and his own experiences seemed to
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: confirm it. He noticed that whenever he visited their house,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: especially if there was some kind of conflict or disagreement
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: brewing between him and niehad, the mother would serve him
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: tea or maybe some food, and he said it always
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: tasted strange, a weird flavor he couldn't.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Place, and after eating or drinking it.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Immediately after any feeling of conflict he had would just evaporate, vanish,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: and he'd find himself apologizing, often for things that weren't
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: his fault. It happened repeatedly.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's specific and incredibly creepy.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: It cemented his certainty. He believed he was being drugged
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: or magically influenced through food and drink to keep him.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Compliant, and his business during this.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Year completely neglected. The successful entrepreneur was gone. He couldn't
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: focus on anything but Nihad. He apparently tried to break
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: off the engagement multiple times during that.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Year, but couldn't go through with it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Nope, something always stopped him. He felt mysteriously unable to
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: actually make the break. The binding in his mind was absolute.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: His life was just dissolving.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: So he's desperate, convinced he's cursed. What does he do?
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: He finally decides he needs answers. He thinks back to
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: those vague warnings from years ago. He seeks out someone
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: he trusts, someone who might know the deeper family history to.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Find out what people were trying to warn him about exactly.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: He asks about Nihad's maternal grandmother, her mother's mother. She
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: had lived in that same area about ten years earlier.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And was there a story there?
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Oh, there was a story, a dark one. This grandmother
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: was apparently infamous in the area, known widely for practicing magic,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: especially black magic.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: So the mother potentially learned from her own mother.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: That was the implication. And the grandmother, she was apparently
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: never seen alone, always had a large.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Black cat with her, a classic image the witch and
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: her familiar.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Right, But witnesses claimed it was more than that. They
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: said they'd seen the grandmother talking to the cat, like
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: having conversations. Some even swore they'd heard the pat speak back.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's definitely venturing into local legend territory, but it
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: paints a picture, the very dark.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Picture, especially considering how the grandmother's story ended.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: How did it end?
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: It was brutal. She and her black cat were both
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: found slaughtered.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Murdered by who why.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: The killer confessed. He said he killed them both specifically
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: to break the black magic that she had used against him.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: He claimed she had completely controlled and ruined his life
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: with her magic.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Wait, so years earlier, someone else felt cursed by this
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: family's magic and resorted to murder to break free exactly.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: It's like a chilling blueprint for what Mohammad was now contemplating.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Did Mohammed believe this story?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: He checked it out, verified it with multiple people in
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: the area. Was a known event. Suddenly those vague warnings
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: from years ago made perfect, terrifying sense. It was about
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: this history, this inherited.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Practice, and he connected to the present day.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He noted how Nihad's father seemed completely passive, almost
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: invisible in the family dynamic. It was always the mother
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: and Nihad calling the shots, making decisions, just like perhaps
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: the grandmother before them.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: So in his mind the pattern was clear.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: He was trapped, absolutely certain. He saw himself as a
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: victim of an inherited curse, his free will totally subjugated,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and he looked at the grandmother's.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Murder and saw it as the only solution.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: He concluded it was the only way, the only way
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: to break the spiritual binding, to get his life and
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: his will back, was through the same violent act that
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: n When did the grandmother's alleged control ten years prior.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: He decided he had to kill them.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: The entire family if possible. He bought a brand new
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: set of knives, not kitchen knives, but weapons, and he
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: spent four days meticulously planning.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: It planning, so it wasn't just a snap decision.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Now, according to the investigation, it was premeditated. He worked
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: at the timing how to eliminate them simultaneously. In his mind,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: this wasn't murder. It was spiritual warfare, self defense against
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: a supernatural attack, which.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Brings us back to that horrific afternoon. The plan put.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Into action, yes, and after the horror on the street,
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: after Nihad fell, the violence just stopped. He didn't run,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: He just sat down, calmly, right there on the ground
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: amidst the.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Bodies, waiting for the police, just waiting.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: When they arrived and arrested him, his only statement was simple,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: He said he was finally rid of them all.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: In the aftermath, the investigation.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: The forensics laid bare the sheer brutality. The mother, seven
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: stab wounds, played the decapitation, the sister who ran outside,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: six stab wounds, Nihad his fiancee, seven stab wounds.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Did you show any remorse? Regret?
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Absolutely none, zero remorse. In fact, his only express regret
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: during the investigation was that he hadn't managed to kill
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the father too. Apparently the father had left for prayers
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: just moments before muhammaderized.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: And the other sister, the one who locked herself upstairs, He.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Regretted not getting her either. He wanted the entire line,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: the source of the magic, as he saw it, gone.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: He repeatedly asked for the death.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Penalty, saw it as freedom, maybe.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Perhaps the final release from the curse he believed had
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: destroyed him. He was, of course, convicted of premeditated murder
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: and sentenced to death, which.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Really brings up this central difficult issue, doesn't it for
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you listening think about this? Mohammed was utterly convinced he
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: was acting in self defense, not against a person, but
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: against a powerful, destructive, spiritual force.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: He believed his life, his will, everything had been stolen
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: by this serle Rabat. To him, the murders were a
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: necessary act to break free. But the law, of course,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: can't operate on that belief system.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: The law sees the physical act, intentional, planned killing.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Exactly. There's a huge gap between his subjective reality, deeply
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: rooted in cultural beliefs about magic and control, and the
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: objective reality of legal justice. He claimed his will was taken,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: yet he willed himself to plan and execute murder.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: It's a contradiction believing he was controlled, yet taking ultimate
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: control through violence. It suggests maybe a lack of faith
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: that any other power, divine or otherwise could save him.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: He put his faith in the knives.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: It's a profoundly disturbing case more than just true crime.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: It's a look into how obsession, paranoia, and this deep
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: seated belief in unseen external forces can utterly consume someone.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Someone who had built a life on tangible success, on
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: hard work and responsibility.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to see that foundation completely eroded, replaced by this
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: conviction that only extreme violence could restore his freedom. It's
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: a chilling psychological journy. You see the steps, the warnings
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: that perceive evidence piling up in his mind.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: It really makes you think, in a world now saturated
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: with information, beliefs, and competing realities, where do you draw
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the line? How do we balance understanding the power that
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: a deeply held belief can.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Have over someone, like the belief in binding magic, which
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: was utterly real to him.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: While also recognizing that letting such a belief dictate irreversible
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: fatal actions crosses a fundamental line. The heavy question to
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: leave you with