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Fatal Collision in Cairo: The Amateur Plot to Rob a Yemeni General That Ended in Torture and Death · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's dive into a case that really exposes this
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: hidden collision point in modern Cairo where immense power and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: just sheer desperation smashed together. Imagine this Giza, Egypt, February
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. It's a human night. We're an apartment
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: building in the Fasal district. Inside there's General Hassan galal Alobidi.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: He's a retired, very respected military director from Yemen, headed
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: their military industrialization apartment.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Actually it's significant figure.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, He's just passing through Egypt between political meetings on
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: his way to Turkey. He often stayed in this particular apartment.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: His brother lives nearby in the same building.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Even familiar ground for him exactly.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: But this trip it just ends violently.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: And it isn't just about, you know, another high profile murder,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: though it certainly is that. It's really about how incredibly
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: close these two worlds can be world, Yeah, the world
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of high level diplomacy, influence, and this other world hidden desperate,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: where a crime like this be driven by just raw
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: greed and frankly ignorance.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: So the general was supposed to have left.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Two days earlier, Yeah, but then just silence from the apartment.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: His brother starts to worry, obviously understandably. He eventually forces
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: his way in and what he finds, well, it tells
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the police immediately this isn't a simple break in or disappearance.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Right, So you walk into this scene, what hits you first?
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Chaos? The place is completely overturned, ransacked. Looks like a
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: frantic robbery. But the victim that's where it gets truly disturbing.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: General Alibidi is found bound, hand and foot tied to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: a chair. He's half naked, collapsed on.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: The floor, bound, So not just a quick robbery gone wrong.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: No, No. The scene screams panic, yes, but also targeted brutality.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: The initial look suggests a violent blow to the head,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: terrible bleeding nose, ears mouth, That impact was likely fatal.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: But the binding, the state he was in, yeah, that
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: implies something else, torture.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: It certainly points that way. Something more happened there than
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: just a struggle during a robbery.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So the big question is who could possibly do this?
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  Speaker 1: Who entered the General's life and left behind such a well,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: such a horrific scene.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: The investigation kicked off right away, and some basic clues
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: emerge pretty quickly. Okay, the Ransack department confirmed robbery as
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: at least part of the motive, but a major piece
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: was missing down on the street. The car, his rented
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  Speaker 2: car gone.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: That's a big clue. Easy it is bought.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: And it led to the first real breakthrough. Security cameras
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: they always do, it seems what do they show clear
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: footage four people leaving the building, two young men, two
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  Speaker 2: young women carrying two large travel.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Bags and getting into the General's.
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  Speaker 2: Car driving away in it.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: So the police had faces and soon they had names.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Who were they?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Ramadan, abdo Soherer and Isra. And when you look at
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: this group, I mean, the contrast with the victim is
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: just start. Ohso Ramadan, he's twenty nine, seems to be
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  Speaker 2: the leader, already known to police, a registered felon, left
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: weapons charges before.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, criminal background there, But.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: The key person, the one who actually set up the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: meeting with the general, was Isra. She was only twenty one.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Twenty one, wow? And what was her story? Was she
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  Speaker 1: part of Ramaddan's usual circle.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: That's what's complicated her background. It doesn't scream hardened criminal
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  Speaker 2: mastermind married very young at sixteen dueres quickly had a child.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: She left with her mother.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: It's a difficult life already.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Difficult, yes, and she was actually working as a house cleaner,
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  Speaker 2: making around five hundred Egyptian pounds a day, which you
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: know wasn't a terrible wage. Then it was an abject poverty.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't just pure financial desperation from the start.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: That raises questions what pushed her towards this exactly?
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  Speaker 2: How does a former house cleaner and a relatively low
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: level felon end up targeting a Yemeni general. The information
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  Speaker 2: suggests a really sudden steep decline for Isra. What happened
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  Speaker 2: She connected with a friend, someone working in prostitution back
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  Speaker 2: in Fayoum. Apparently Idra was resistant at first, she liked
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  Speaker 2: the stability of.
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  Speaker 1: Her cleaning job, but something changed her mind.
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  Speaker 2: It seems it wasn't just the money, though that was
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  Speaker 2: a big part. It was also pitched as like excitement, drinking, socializing,
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  Speaker 2: an escape, maybe.
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  Speaker 1: The lure of a different life however dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: Pretty much. Her friend gave her that push, and soon
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  Speaker 2: Israe was drawn into that world, started soliciting, even took
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  Speaker 2: a street name Dina.
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  Speaker 1: And this is where Ramadan comes in.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, she met Ramadan through this new life. Sometime in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, things moved fast. They decided they wanted
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  Speaker 2: a quote.
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  Speaker 1: Fresh start in Cairo, a fresh start with him.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they even got married, but it was an unno marriage,
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  Speaker 2: an unregistered informal contract. That's important because it offered zero
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  Speaker 2: legal or social protection when things went wrong, which they
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  Speaker 2: did spectacularly. They moved to a new apartment and in
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  Speaker 2: Baba tried some kind of business venture involving Israe's stepfather.
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  Speaker 2: It failed. Ramadan accused the stepfather of stealing.
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  Speaker 1: From him, so broke again in a new city, no safety.
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  Speaker 2: Net, completely broke, absolute desperation, and this is where things
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  Speaker 2: take a really dark turn, where the risk taking shifts.
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  Speaker 2: Oh Isra proposed a new plan, a truly chilling one.
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  Speaker 2: She'd keep meeting clients, but part way through the.
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  Speaker 1: Meeting, Ramadan would show up.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he'd burst in, pretending to be the outraged husband.
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  Speaker 2: They'd robbed the client in the middle of the chaos
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  Speaker 2: and confusion they created.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's incredibly high risk.
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  Speaker 2: Ramadan agreed. Apparently he thought Isra would be safe and
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  Speaker 2: they'd make quick cash.
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  Speaker 1: They seriously thought this was a sustainable plan. Staging violent
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  Speaker 1: confrontations with potentially powerful men. It sounds less like a
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  Speaker 1: plan and more like, well, like you said, desperation, zero
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  Speaker 1: foresight exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It just screams how cornered they felt, how fast they
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: needed money. So Isra starts walking the streets again for
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: two days, nothing, no luck finding.
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  Speaker 1: The right client, and then she finds the general.
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  Speaker 2: Right around one am near the quasar Al nil Bridge,
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  Speaker 2: she spots Alabidi in a nice car, sees he's not Egyptian,
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  Speaker 2: likely from the Gulf, assumes he has money.
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  Speaker 1: She's thrilled this is the mark they were looking for.
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  Speaker 2: But then the plan immediately gets more complicated the exchange numbers.
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  Speaker 2: He calls her shortly after.
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  Speaker 1: What did he want?
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  Speaker 2: He asks Isra to bring two more girls, says he
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  Speaker 2: has friends with him.
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  Speaker 1: Oh no, so now they need more people involved in
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  Speaker 1: the robbery.
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  Speaker 2: Instantly, Isra apparently only knew one other person she could
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  Speaker 2: possibly bring in on short notice, her younger sister so Hair.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Her sister how old is so Hair?
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  Speaker 2: Only sixteen? Her nickname was Mena, and so Hair was
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: also married to Abdo who is just seventeen, nicknamed Abdo Asalia.
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  Speaker 1: Sixteen and seventeen miner's involved in this plot.
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  Speaker 2: Now unbelievably, Yes, Isra sends Sohir's photo to Alabadi. He accepts.
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  Speaker 2: He has absolutely no idea. He's just invited two teenagers
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  Speaker 2: into his apartment as part of a setup.
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  Speaker 1: So the four of them, Ramadan, Isra, Abdo so Hair,
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  Speaker 1: they meet up yes.
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  Speaker 2: To plan what's now their first big coordinated robbery. The
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: plan is Isra and Sohair take a taxi to the
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  Speaker 2: apartment in Fasal and the sodas they'd use pills they'd bought,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: put them in juice or tea. The idea was to
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: wait until the general and his friend were asleep, then
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  Speaker 2: signal Ramadan an Abdo to come up.
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  Speaker 1: But then another twist, a huge one.
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  Speaker 2: On the day itself, Alibedi's friend cancels he's going to
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  Speaker 2: be alone.
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  Speaker 1: So the target is now a single man. That changes things.
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  Speaker 2: It simplifies it in a way. Ramadan and Abdo are
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: waiting nearby at a cafe for the signal. They now
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  Speaker 2: only need to subdue.
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  Speaker 1: One person that they were relying on the drugs working,
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  Speaker 1: and this.
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  Speaker 2: Is where their total lack of understanding becomes fatal. They
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  Speaker 2: had no idea who Alibidi really was a fit, senior
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  Speaker 2: military man, not someone easily overcome.
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  Speaker 1: So the pills.
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  Speaker 2: The girls give him the pills. They wait and wait, nothing.
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  Speaker 2: He shows basically no effect.
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  Speaker 1: He's resisting the sedative completely.
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  Speaker 2: So they give him more, a higher dose this time.
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  Speaker 2: It does something, makes them a bit tired, groggy maybe,
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  Speaker 2: but he's still conscious, still aware.
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  Speaker 1: The plan is falling apart utterly.
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  Speaker 2: Ramadan starts calling Israel's phone. He's getting nervous, worried about her,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: maybe sensing something's wrong because the signal hasn't come, And.
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  Speaker 1: He finds out the General is alone.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and still awake. Ramadan demands Israel create some kind
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  Speaker 2: of distraction so they can get in.
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  Speaker 1: What does she do?
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  Speaker 2: She tells the General she needs to pop out and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: buy some food. Alabidi feeling tired from the drugs, just
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: wanting peas hands for the keys, apartment keys, building keys.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's the moment, the crucial mistake.
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  Speaker 2: That's the signal. Isra goes downstairs, meets Ramadan and Abdo,
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  Speaker 2: and they storm.
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  Speaker 1: The apartment and the General still somewhat conscious.
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  Speaker 2: Yes enough to be shocked, He sees them burst in,
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  Speaker 2: realizes what's happening and reacts immediately. He fights back, tries
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: desperately to get to.
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  Speaker 1: The apartment door to call his brother nearby.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly he knows help is close if he can just
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: raise the alarm.
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  Speaker 1: This is where the violence must have exploded instantly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, before they even thought about robbery. It was pure
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: panic from the attackers. The sources say they pulled out knives,
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  Speaker 2: mattwa sort of local switchblades or naves.
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  Speaker 1: To subdue him.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they started inflicting superficial cuts, trying to scare him,
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  Speaker 2: silence him, stop him from reaching the door. It was chaotic, amateurish,
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  Speaker 2: pure fear driving them.
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  Speaker 1: But then it shifted, it became something colder.
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  Speaker 2: It did. According to the account, it was Isra who
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: suggested the next step, the truly brutal one, which was
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  Speaker 2: strip the general, film him naked, threaten to publish the videos.
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  Speaker 2: Use that humiliation to keep him quiet while they robbed him.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's deliberate cruelty, psychological warfare, almost taking away his dignity,
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  Speaker 1: his authority.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, they gagged him, used strips of cloth torn from
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  Speaker 2: things in the apartment to tie him hand and foot
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  Speaker 2: to that chair.
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  Speaker 1: And who was guarding him Abdu, the.
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  Speaker 2: Seventeen year old. He was given a kitchen knife and
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: told to watch the general make sure he didn't move.
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  Speaker 2: Imagine that scene, the General utterly powerless, now humiliated.
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  Speaker 1: Bound while the others searched.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Ramadan isra Sohair were carrying the place apart looking
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: for valuables. And then Ramadan found it bound What the
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: safe in the bedroom, something potentially far more valuable than
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: anything else scattered.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Around, So he goes back to the General, right.
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  Speaker 2: Back to the bound man demands the key or the
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: code to the safe.
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  Speaker 1: And Alobidy he refused.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Even then he refused.
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  Speaker 1: That refusal must have broken something.
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  Speaker 2: It seems it broke whatever little control they had left.
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  Speaker 2: The reaction was brutal. Ramadan and Abdor just beat him
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: violently with the knife, apparently until he couldn't take anymore.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: He gave of the code.
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  Speaker 2: He finally complied, lost all hope of rescue, probably just
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: wanted the beating to stop. That beating that was likely
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the point of no return, the moment the violence became fatal,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: aimed at extraction, not just subduing God.
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  Speaker 1: So they got into the safe.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: They emptied it, took the cash, whatever, soulse was inside,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: grabbed the car keys, stuffed everything they could find into
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: those two large travel bags.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: They'd brought, and then the escape.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Hasty drove the stolen car back to their area and
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Baba ditched it somewhere far from their apartment. Divided the
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: money immediately. How much did they get not specified exactly
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: how much was in the safe, but they each took
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: one thousand EGP right away just to rent separate places
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: to hide out temporarily scatter smart move.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: In a way, and Ramadan took an extra precaution.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he hid the general's electronics, phone devices, anything traceable
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: at his ex wife's place Ayah.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: She was twenty four, trying to distance himself from the.
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  Speaker 2: Evidence exactly, but it all unraveled very quickly. How soon
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: two days after the murder is when the general's brother
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: found him. The police machinery kicked in and within another
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  Speaker 2: two days.
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  Speaker 1: They had him.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: All four main suspects were arrested. Ramadan Israe Abdo soher
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: plus Aya, the ex wife, because the stolen goods were
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: found at her place.
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  Speaker 1: What happened to Aya?
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: She was actually acquitted later she managed to prove she
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: had no idea the stuff Ramadan left with stolen, but
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: she wasn't involved in the crime itself, even though she
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: apparently had a prior drug charge.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And the main four the sentences they.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Came down fast March twenty twenty four. Ramadan, the ringleader,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: got the death penalty.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And Isra, the one who made the initial contact, suggested
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the blackmail life imprisonment and the teenagers, yeah, abdoing.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Sohir because they were miners, seventeen and sixteen. They received
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: fifteen years each, but of severe imprisonment, a very harsh sentence,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: reflecting the brutality even considering our age.
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  Speaker 1: It's just a horrifying story, a snapshot of how quickly
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: desperation can spiral into something calculated and ultimately fatal, especially
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: when amateurs are under pressure.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: It really is, but it does leave you wondering, particularly
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: about Israel. You see these four people like cogs in
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: this terrible machine.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Was she just a calculating criminal driving the worst of
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: it like the blackmail idea?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Or is there another way to look at it? Was
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: she maybe also a victim, a product of her circumstances,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: those early struggles, the influence of that friend, the pressure
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: from Ramadan. Maybe it's complus lines get blurry. This case
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: shocking because of who the victim was, but also the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: sheer brutality. It forces you to look at how thin
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: the line can be between desperation and well deadly criminality.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And when you think about the whole arc, the lure,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the failed sedation, the panic, the blackmail attempt, and then
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that final awful violence to get the safe code. Was
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: it just about the money in the end or something else?
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Kick in That sudden unexpected feeling of power they had
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: over this important man, did that fuel the extremity of
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the violence.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: That dynamic of control is definitely worth considering. They failed
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to control him with drugs, They failed with the initial
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: knife threats, the stripping, the filming. It feels like an
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: attempt to regain absolute control through humiliation when physical control failed.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: So, for you listening, what do you take away from this?
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: When desperation hits a wall, it's unexpected resistance. The outcome
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: can be wildly disproportionate to whatever the original goal was.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: That brief may be intoxicating taste of power over someone
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: perceived as powerful ends up costing the perpetrators everything far
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: more than anybody. They might steal something to think about
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: these hidden worlds and the pressures within them, existing right
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: alongside our own