Latest / Crime Night / Shattered Honor, Stolen Lives: The Minya Triple Murder Fueled by Affair and Village Gossip

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Shattered Honor, Stolen Lives: The Minya Triple Murder Fueled by Affair and Village Gossip · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're looking into a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: really tough case, one where private betrayal just exploded into
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: horrific public violence.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're heading to Minya, Egypt. Back in twenty twelve,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: a triple murder and.
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  Speaker 1: This wasn't about theft, not random at all. It seems
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  Speaker 1: rooted in this twisted idea of honor exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Our goal today is to piece together what happened, sure,
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  Speaker 2: but also to understand the pressures, the rumors, the whole
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  Speaker 2: societal contexts that well led to this.
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  Speaker 1: It's a grim one and the details are graphic. Just
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  Speaker 1: a heads up for everyone listening.
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  Speaker 2: Yare no understanding the sequence, the motivations. It's crucial. It's
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  Speaker 2: about how hidden secrets and public judgment just collided.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's set the scene. Picture this three am, a
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  Speaker 1: quiet village in rural Minya. It's completely silent, the.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Kind of quiet that feels heavy.
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  Speaker 1: Until it shatters. A frantic call comes in reporting a massacre.
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  Speaker 1: Police race to a house, a multi family place. It's
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  Speaker 1: the home of Kareem, a trader thirty eight years old,
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  Speaker 1: apparently respective.
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  Speaker 2: And right away the police knows something's very wrong. It's
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  Speaker 2: pitch black inside. Oh yeah, the main electrical switch cut.
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  Speaker 2: Someone wanted that darkness. This wasn't random violence, It was planned,
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  Speaker 2: targeted at the people inside, not their stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So police moved through the dark and what do they find? First?
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  Speaker 2: On the inner stairs, the ones going up to the roof,
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  Speaker 2: they find Kareem's oldest son, just twelve years old. Oh god,
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  Speaker 2: stabbed repeatedly, covered in blood. He's unconscious but alive, still
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  Speaker 2: breathing at that point.
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  Speaker 1: Just barely, I imagine. But it gets worse tragically.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. In another room nearby, they find two younger children,
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  Speaker 2: ten and eight years old, dead on a bed. The
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  Speaker 2: level of violence was shocking. Multiple stab wounds, yes, but
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  Speaker 2: the investigators specifically noted these deep.
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  Speaker 1: Clear cuts to their necks, like an execution.
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  Speaker 2: It suggests an intent far beyond just rage, a horrifyingly
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  Speaker 2: methodical need to ensure death.
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  Speaker 1: And clues anything left behind?
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  Speaker 2: Not much A white shirt found on the stairs and
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  Speaker 2: a single shoe up on the roof where the attacker
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  Speaker 2: likely entered her exited.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so three children attacked, two killed outright. It seems personal,
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  Speaker 1: aimed at the family, aimed at Kareem, the father who.
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  Speaker 2: Wasn't even there. Turns out he was away that night
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  Speaker 2: a rare meeting with other traders.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently, and his wife. Where was she?
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  Speaker 2: Initially she told investigators she was staying at her parents'
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  Speaker 2: house that night, just by coincidence.
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  Speaker 1: Wait, both parents just happened to be away on the
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  Speaker 1: night their children are attacked. That sounds that raises huge
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  Speaker 1: red flags.
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  Speaker 2: Doesn't huge red flags? Absolutely no robbery. The parents absent.
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  Speaker 2: Investigators immediately suspected something deeper was going on, not necessarily collusion,
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  Speaker 2: but that these absences weren't accidental.
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  Speaker 1: So who was there? Anyone witnessed anything.
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  Speaker 2: Kareem's sister in law was in the house in her
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  Speaker 2: own room. Her testimony is chilling. She woke up around
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  Speaker 2: two am when the fan in her room suddenly stopped
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  Speaker 2: because the power was cut.
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  Speaker 1: The power cut woke her right.
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  Speaker 2: Then she heard the eldest boy scream yelling a warning,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: something like stay in your rooms.
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  Speaker 1: He was trying to protect the others, it seems so.
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  Speaker 2: Then she heard the screams of the two younger.
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  Speaker 1: Boys, and she stayed hidden.
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  Speaker 2: She said she was terrified, paralyzed by fear. She just
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  Speaker 2: stayed put. After it went silent, she saw a shadow
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  Speaker 2: just a figure fleeing up the stairs towards the roof,
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  Speaker 2: too dark to see any features. Then she discovered the horror.
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  Speaker 1: So the police have a witness sort of, but no idea.
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  Speaker 1: They must have turned to the community. Then Kareem was respected.
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  Speaker 1: You said any known enemies, disputes.
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  Speaker 2: And that's where they hit a brick wall, complete silence.
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  Speaker 2: The community praised Kareem, called him a good trader, successful,
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  Speaker 2: But nothing else, no whispers of trouble, no grudges mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: Strange, Right, in a small village, people usually know things.
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  Speaker 1: Why protect secrets When children.
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  Speaker 2: Have been murdered, it points to something cultural, something sensitive.
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  Speaker 2: They sense the crime as deeply personal, maybe shameful, possibly
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  Speaker 2: related to family honor.
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  Speaker 1: Ah that word again, honor.
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  Speaker 2: In that context, keeping quiet, even from the police, can
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  Speaker 2: feel like the safer option. Protecting the family or community
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  Speaker 2: reputation becomes paramount, even over finding a killer. Quickly, they
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  Speaker 2: were talking around the.
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  Speaker 1: Truth, so the police had to dig deeper past the
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  Speaker 1: business stuff into the family dynamics. The village was trying to.
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  Speaker 2: Hide exactly, and they went back to the wife's convenient
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  Speaker 2: coincidence of being.
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  Speaker 1: Away, And it wasn't a coincidence at all was not
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  Speaker 1: even close.
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  Speaker 2: She wasn't there because she'd had a massive fight with Kareem.
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  Speaker 2: Why because he was having an affair.
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  Speaker 1: An affair with who.
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  Speaker 2: A married woman named Riem who lived right there on
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  Speaker 2: the same street. That was the secret everyone knew but
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't tell the police.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, so the motive starts to crystallize revenge maybe
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  Speaker 1: related to this affair.
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  Speaker 2: That's where the investigation turn. But the final confirmation, the
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  Speaker 2: thing that really broke the community's silence, was more tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: The eldest son, the one they found alive.
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  Speaker 2: He died on the third day in intensive care. He
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  Speaker 2: couldn't overcome his jury. It was devastating, and that final
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  Speaker 2: death seemed to push the villagers over the hedge. They
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  Speaker 2: finally started confirming the rumors to the police. Yes, Kareem
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  Speaker 2: and Reim were having an affair. They believed that relationship
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  Speaker 2: was the reason those children were dead.
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  Speaker 1: So this affair wasn't new. How long had this been
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  Speaker 1: going on?
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  Speaker 2: To really get it, you have to go back twelve
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  Speaker 2: years before the crime. Kareem, young and poor back then,
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  Speaker 2: actually proposed to.
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  Speaker 1: Reim Karim, the woman he later had the affair with.
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  Speaker 2: The very same, but her family wealthy merchants, rejected him
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  Speaker 2: because he had nothing. So Kareem married someone else, a relative,
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  Speaker 2: worked hard, became a successful trader himself, almost like he
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  Speaker 2: was driven to prove them wrong. And Reim she married
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  Speaker 2: someone else too, a man who eventually went to work abroad,
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  Speaker 2: leaving her effectively alone in the village.
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  Speaker 1: And then four.
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  Speaker 2: Years before the murders, around two thousand and eight, Kareem
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  Speaker 2: and Reim reconnected started an affair right under everyone's noses,
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  Speaker 2: disguised as just being friendly.
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  Speaker 1: Neighbors, even though Kareem's wife knew or suspected.
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  Speaker 2: She definitely suspected and was deeply distressed by it. But
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  Speaker 2: the affair continued. It became, you know, an open secret,
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  Speaker 2: so much so that the community actually tried to intervene officially. Unofficially,
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  Speaker 2: they held what's called a customary council an orfia session.
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  Speaker 2: It's like a traditional mediation to handle local disputes quietly.
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  Speaker 1: Did it work? Did they admit to it?
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  Speaker 2: Noep. Both Kareem and Riem flat out denied everything in
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  Speaker 2: front of the council, So officially the matter was closed
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  Speaker 2: publicly dropped.
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  Speaker 1: But privately, the gossip the judgment, the shame. It just
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  Speaker 1: kept simmering, didn't they exactly?
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  Speaker 2: It festered, and that unresolved tension, that public denial masking
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  Speaker 2: private reality, pointed investigators towards revenge, specifically from Rhem's family,
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  Speaker 2: feeling their honor was stained.
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  Speaker 1: So they checked out Rheim's family in Minya, her parents, siblings.
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  Speaker 2: There, they did, but her immediate family members who lived
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  Speaker 2: locally all had confirmed alibis rock solid. Investigators hit another.
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  Speaker 1: Wall until day four. What changed?
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  Speaker 2: A new name Surfa, someone not living in Minya, someone
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  Speaker 2: slightly removed but still connected. Rhem's brother, Sayid Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Where was he.
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  Speaker 2: Living and working in Cairo as a marble worker miles away?
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  Speaker 2: But he had a reputation known for being volatile, highly emotional.
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  Speaker 1: And crucially, how much did he know about the affair?
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  Speaker 1: Did Reim tell him or Kareem?
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  Speaker 2: That's the most shocking part. Apparently no one told him directly.
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  Speaker 2: He knew about the alleged affair only through village gossip,
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  Speaker 2: rumors that trickled down from Minya to Cairo.
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  Speaker 1: He acted based on gossip, not even confirmed fact from
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  Speaker 1: his own.
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  Speaker 2: Sister, based purely on rumor. That's what he claimed and
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  Speaker 2: that's what the investigation indicated. It's staggering. His entire motivation
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  Speaker 2: seems built on hearsay.
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  Speaker 1: So how did they connect him to the night of
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  Speaker 1: the murder If he was in Cairo?
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  Speaker 2: Police checked his workplace records and guess what. Sai disappeared
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  Speaker 2: from his job in Cairo around seven pm on the
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  Speaker 2: evening of the murders ah and he reappeared the next morning,
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  Speaker 2: acting completely normal, like he'd never been away. That Cairo
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  Speaker 2: alibi just evaporated.
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  Speaker 1: So if he picked him up.
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  Speaker 2: Immediately security forces apprehended him in Cairo. Reports say he
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  Speaker 2: was extremely tense, agitated.
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  Speaker 1: Did he deny it, try to run?
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  Speaker 2: No? He confessed right away, just like that, and his.
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  Speaker 1: Reason chillingly simple. He said he did it to restore
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  Speaker 1: the family's honor, and he confirmed his knowledge of the
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  Speaker 1: affair was entirely based on those unverified rumors from the village.
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  Speaker 2: Unbelievable. So what was his plan? Did he just snap
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  Speaker 2: and drive down? It was planned meticulously. He traveled from Cairo,
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  Speaker 2: but got off the bus or trained the village before
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  Speaker 2: his own didn't want to be seen.
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  Speaker 1: Arriving, smart, sneaky.
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  Speaker 2: He then hid out in the agricultural fields nearby, just
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  Speaker 2: waiting until about one am. Then he approached Kareem's house
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  Speaker 2: and got in via the.
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  Speaker 1: Roof, and his target was Kareem primarily.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, his initial plan was to kill Kareem, and he
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  Speaker 2: also planned chillingly to come back about two weeks later
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  Speaker 2: to kill his own sister Reem.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, so punish both sides he felt were responsible. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: but Kareem.
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  Speaker 2: Wasn't there that night exactly. He gets inside, searches, realizes
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  Speaker 2: Kareem is gone, So.
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  Speaker 1: Why not just leave? His main target wasn't there the
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  Speaker 1: dishonor wasn't physically present to confront.
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  Speaker 2: This is where it gets even darker. It seems his
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  Speaker 2: motivation shifted right then and there. It wasn't just about
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  Speaker 2: eliminating the source of the shame anymore. What did it
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  Speaker 2: become inflicting the deepest possible pain on Kareem. Since Kareem
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  Speaker 2: wasn't there, he decided to destroy Kareem's legacy, his future,
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  Speaker 2: his children, a symbolic, devastating revenge.
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  Speaker 1: That's horrifying. So walk us through his confession to the
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  Speaker 1: attack itself.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so Kareem's not there, Sayed decides to kill the
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  Speaker 2: children first. He cuts the power. He's hoping someone will
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  Speaker 2: come out.
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  Speaker 1: To investigate, and the eldest son did.
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  Speaker 2: The twelve year old came out onto the stairs to
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  Speaker 2: check the power, said attacked him right there, stab him repeatedly,
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  Speaker 2: left him for dead, unconscious on the stairs.
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  Speaker 1: Then he went for the others.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, he went into the room where the two younger
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  Speaker 2: boys were sleeping. He stabbed them again multiple times until
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: they lost consciousness.
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  Speaker 1: But he didn't stop there, did he the neck onodes.
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  Speaker 2: No, because at that moment he heard the sister in
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  Speaker 2: law stirring in her room. He panicked, maybe thought he
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  Speaker 2: was about to be discovered, so.
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  Speaker 1: We needed to ensure silence.
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  Speaker 2: And ensure his objective was met total destruction. He went
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  Speaker 2: back to the two younger boys, who were likely already
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  Speaker 2: dying or unconscious, and he slipped their throats to make
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  Speaker 2: absolutely sure they were dead before he fled.
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  Speaker 1: And then he just escaped over the roof, again.
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  Speaker 2: Over the roof, covered in blood. But the planning didn't
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  Speaker 2: stop there.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
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  Speaker 2: He contacted a relative while fleeing.
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  Speaker 1: A relative helped him.
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  Speaker 2: This relative confirmed for Sayad that Reem his sister was
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  Speaker 2: also away that night. Then this relative told sai et
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  Speaker 2: exactly what to do next, which was go down to
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  Speaker 2: the Nile River, wash the blood off, then meet the
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  Speaker 2: relative who would bring him clean clothes so he.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Could get back to Cairo clean, undetected.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly maintain the alibi that he was just a marble
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: worker in Cairo who never left the city. It's just
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  Speaker 2: layer upon layer of chilling premeditation.
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  Speaker 1: My God, three children dead because of gossip and a
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  Speaker 1: brother's perceived slight to honor.
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  Speaker 2: It's a devastating outcome. You have, Sayid, acting under what
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: sounds like immense psychological pressure, fueled entirely by village rumors,
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  Speaker 2: by judgment.
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  Speaker 1: And he takes it out on the most innocent victims,
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  Speaker 1: imaginable children who had nothing to do with their father's
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  Speaker 1: choices or the community's whispers.
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  Speaker 2: They were the ultimate victims of Kareem's actions, Yes, but
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  Speaker 2: also of this toxic environment where shame and rumor spiral
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  Speaker 2: out of control.
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  Speaker 1: It really does put the actions of all the adults
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  Speaker 1: involved under a harsh light, doesn't it. Kareem starting the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: affair may be driven by old resentments, but ultimately putting
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  Speaker 1: his own children in terrible danger, and.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: His wife understandably hurt and angry, but she left her
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  Speaker 2: children in that volatile situation.
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  Speaker 1: And reheim herself continuing the affair, seemingly disregarding her own
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  Speaker 1: marriage vows and the potential consequences in such a close knit,
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  Speaker 1: judgmental community.
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  Speaker 2: The whole situation underscores a tragic failure at multiple levels,
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  Speaker 2: a failure to resolve conflict constructively. Instead, there was denial, hiding,
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  Speaker 2: letting things fester until they exploded, And the cost.
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  Speaker 1: Was just unthinkable paid by those three young lives. They
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  Speaker 1: weren't just victims of Sayid's knife.
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  Speaker 2: Were they No, they were victims of the whole environment,
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  Speaker 2: the secrecy, the judgment, the distorted priorities created by the
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  Speaker 2: adults around them, by the community itself.
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  Speaker 1: It makes you think, if a community's strongest currency is
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: its word, its reputation, how often does this desperate grasp
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: for honor lead to the absolute deepest dishonor Where does
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the blame even begin to settle when everything's built on
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: rumor and broken relationships,