Latest / Crime Night / The OBGYN, The Burn Barrel, and The Dogs: How a Respected Doctor Ran a Five-Year Illegal Abortion Empire

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The OBGYN, The Burn Barrel, and The Dogs: How a Respected Doctor Ran a Five-Year Illegal Abortion Empire · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's set the scene Curdasa twenty twenty two. Picture
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: this a dry, neglected patch of land. It's dusty, kind
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of forgotten, and right next to it a building that
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: looks pretty respectable. Actually it's a newly opened women's hospital,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: three stories tall. But there's this atmosphere, something deeply unsettling
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: about it, and one sound that just doesn't stop. Yeah,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: if you were nearby, you definitely throar them first, the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: street dogs. But they're not just milling around, you know.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: They're focused, aggressive, almost always gathering right there, digging through
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the trash of the piles up. It's constant day and night.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: That's the backdrop, And into the scene walks Roudwa. She's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a young woman just hoping to get a nursing job
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: at this new hospital. So she's walking past that patch
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of ground. Here's the dog snarling, and something makes her
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: look closer, and what she sees it just stops her cold.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: The dogs aren't fighting over like normal garbage. They're gathered
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: around a tiny human fetus, discarded, likely feeding on it.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: It's unspeakable. In that single horrific discovery, that's what starts
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to pull the thread on this whole thing. A five
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: year upper run by doctor Ahmed Sammy, a respected doctor
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: hiding something truly monstrous.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: It really is the contradiction that hits you, isn't it
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: when you look into this case doctor Ahmed Sammy. He's
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: this figure in the community and obgyn supposed to be
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: about life, about healing. Yet somehow he managed to run this,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: this enterprise based on well destruction night after night, and
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: right below where his own family was slipping. So our
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: mission in this deep dive really is to peel back
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: those layers. Understand the horror, yes, but also the sheer
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: calculation behind it. How did he keep this deception going
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: for so long?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Right, let's go back, let's unpack how it all started.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: We need to flash back to around two thousand and seven.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Sammy had just finished his specialization of stetrics and gynecology,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: and professionally people thought highly of him.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. Colleagues saw him as brilliant, you know, really skilled,
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  Speaker 2: on track for big things in medicine.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: They had confidence in him, but that confidence it was
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: misplaced completely.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems clear his goal almost right from the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: start wasn't medical excellence. It was money, aggressive wealth accumulation,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and he figured out pretty quickly that illegal procedures were
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: the fastest way to.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Get rich, specifically abortions, illegal ones exactly.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: And we have to remember the legal risk for that
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: is huge, I mean potentially even the death penalty in
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: some situations. But the payout that was the draw.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: So how did he start? Did he just open his
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: own place? No?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Not at first. He was smarter than that in a way.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: He realized he needed experience and capital. So between two
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: thousand and seven and twenty thirteen he basically skipped the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: official system altogether. He worked only in these unofficial clinics,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the real under the stairs kind of operations. That was
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: a training ground.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Ah okay, so six years doing.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: That, six years gating experience, making money fast, and really
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: mastering the that's called it the dark side of a specialty.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: But then wide change. If those hitting clinics were working,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: why risk setting up a legal visible hospital seems counterintuitive.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: That's a really good point. Boils down to risk and
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: control those underground places, as they're vulnerable police raids, rivals,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: unreliable partners. It's messy. Sammy with his well, his true
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: devil ambition, as some sources put it, he realized he
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: needed a fortress, something that looked legitimate on the outside
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: but gave him total control and secrecy on the inside.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, So that leads to his planning phase four years,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: you said, twenty thirteen to twenty seventeen.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: What was he doing then building the foundation? Two main things,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: getting more money together and recruiting the right team. He
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: needed a small, absolutely loyal crew, five people, people who
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: wouldn't ask questions about right or wrong. And crucially, his
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: own brother was central to this.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: His brother.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, his brother wore three hats. Basically he was the
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: anesthetic doctor, a general worker when needed, and maybe most importantly,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: he managed the money, total trust, absolute loyalty.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: So twenty seventeen the plan comes together. He buys the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: three story house in Crudossa.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: That's right, floors one and two set up meticulously fully
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: licensed legal women's hospital looks totally above board, and the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: third floor his home his family residence, directly above the
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: entire operation.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: The audacity is stunning.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: As part of the strategy, the real genius, if you
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: can call it, that was mixing the patients. The center
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: actually built a reputation for being competent, even helping the poor.
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  Speaker 2: That legitimate activity, that veneer of charity was the perfect cover.
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  Speaker 2: It shielded the illegal stuff happening right alongside it.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: But even with that cover, people started noticing things right
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: before the big discovery in twenty twenty two.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, subtle things. At first. Neighbors saw the surgery room
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: was always busy constantly, which seemed maybe a bit much,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: and the patients. They noticed the type of visitors, a
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: lot of very young girls, often showing up alone. It
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: didn't quite fit the picture of a standard maternity clinic,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: just quiet whispers, inconsistencies.
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  Speaker 1: Those quiet whispers then turned into something much louder in
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. The dogs.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Obviously, that was impossible to ignore. The sheer number of
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: dogs always at that same spot near the hospital. It
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: suggested a concert. That's an unusual food source, not just
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: everyday trash.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: And the other thing the.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Smoke from the roof. People started reporting seeing fire and
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: large amounts of smoke coming from the roof of the
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: building the third floor where the doctor.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Lived, which makes absolutely no sense for a hospital or
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: a home.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: None at all. It's not like medical centers normally have,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: you know, incinerators on their residential floor.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: So after Radwa's discovery, others came forward confirmed seeing the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: dogs with remains.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, multiple residents confirmed similar sightings. That's when someone finally
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: called the authorities and the police.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: They already had some suspicions, general.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Ones, it seems, but this specific report about the fetuses,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: that was concrete that mobilized them. They were smart about it, though,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: formed a silent research team first gather intelligence without tipping
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Sammy off.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: What did they find.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: They confirmed the strange patient patterns, young girls arriving early,
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  Speaker 2: staying all day, then leaving very late at night, like
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: eleven pm or even midnight, clearly not routine checkup for
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: normal births. They also noted the conditions inside weren't great,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: especially operating in recovery rooms on the second floor. And
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: they got solid.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Information on the money, how much is he charging?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: The figure was five thousand Egyptian pounds per abortion, which
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: you have to understand was a significant amount of money
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: back then for many people in that area. That could
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: be several months income. This was a very profitable.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Business managed by that core five person team exactly.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: And crucially, investigators observed the nurses. They saw them dumping
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: black bags in that trash area late at night and
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: immediately after the dogs would converge aggressively. All the pieces
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: clicked into place.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: The raid was inevitable completely They had enough, so they
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: get the prosecutors warn't move in. At two thousand in
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the afternoon.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: What happens, It happens fast. The facade just crumbles. They
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: catch doctor Sammy red handed literally mid operation, performing an
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: illegal abortion on an eighteen year old girl.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Wow. And they searched the place top to bottom.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: They find narcotic pills, suggesting he was also trafficking drugs
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: likely to us during the procedures. They find his personal
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: firearm too, and they confirm the patient's situation. Lots of
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: young girls, mostly from outside CARDASA waiting for abortions, mixed
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  Speaker 2: right in with actual legitimate maternity patients to keep up
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: the appearance.
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  Speaker 1: But the roof that must have been the focus given
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the smoke reports it was.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Officers went straight up there to the third floor and
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: the smell hit them first, gasoline strong. They found large
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: metal barrels signs of recent fires. They had to put out,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: flames still going in some.
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  Speaker 1: Of them, and inside the barrels.
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  Speaker 2: The conformation of the horror fetuses, partially burned, completed fetuses
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  Speaker 2: being incinerated.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Dear God.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: The nurses. Once arrested, they laid it all out. The routine.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, it is the routine.
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  Speaker 2: After an abortion, the fetus was handled in one of
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  Speaker 2: two ways. Either taken up to the roof, doused in gasoline,
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  Speaker 2: burned in those barrels.
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  Speaker 1: The cardassa crematorium essentially.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Effectively yes, or the other method just put in a
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  Speaker 2: bag and dumped in the trash area for the dogs,
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  Speaker 2: a cold, calculate disposal. And this has been going on
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: for five years.
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  Speaker 1: Five years. So they arrest Sammy and the whole team,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the Core five, and Sammy's reaction when confronted with the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: barrels the ashes.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Initially total denial, denied everything, but the evidence was overwhelming,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: the burning barrels, the testimony, so he confessed. But then
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: he tried to twist it. He tried to frame himself
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: as some kind of hero. Said he was helping vulnerable
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: young women, saving them from scandal, preventing street children. He
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: claimed he was providing a necessary service a.
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  Speaker 1: Hero by burning fetuses on his roof and feeding them
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to dogs.
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  Speaker 2: It's a shocking justification, isn't it. But look at the facts.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Five thousand EGP per procedure, trafficking narcotics on the side.
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  Speaker 2: This wasn't about helping anyone who was pure profit using
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: the most vulnerable people.
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  Speaker 1: The hero defense is just a rationalization for greed.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly a true calculation, as the analysis suggests. And he
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: was legally cunning too, how so, he seemed to understand
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: the legal lines. He knew that the charges could very
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: mad depending on the stage of fetal development. He knew
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: killing a live born fetus could mean the death penalty.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So the burning, the disposal, that was about destroying evidence,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: particularly evidence of the most serious crimes.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: It certainly looks that way. The methods were designed to
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: eliminate proof, potentially shielding him for the most severe charges.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: He was likely committing crimes across all levels over those
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: five years.
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  Speaker 1: It's just the layers of this, the medical skill twisted
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: into this profit machine, and the desecration, the fact his
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: family lived right there, right.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Above the burn barrels, sleeping while he conducted these these
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: satanic operations, as some called it, completely violating his medical oath,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: any sense of human decency.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: It really underscores the core contradiction, doesn't it. The skilled
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: professional who built an Empire on Murder and Disposal.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: It's a stark reminder, isn't it. You have to look
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: past the titles, the respectable exteriors. Sometimes the deepest darkness
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: hides behind the most trusted faces. It needs that cover
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to operate, and.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: The level of planning, five years, the team, the money,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: mixing legal and illegal so carefully. It shows a mind
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: totally committed to exploiting the system, exploiting vulnerability.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Which brings us to that final unsettling question, what kind
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: of psychological mechanism allows someone to do this? To rationalize
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: burning human remains, feeding them to animals night after night,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: while maintaining a family life, just feed away, sleeping soundly
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: above it
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: All, That's definitely something to think about.