MB was behind the massacre at Egypt’s MTA in 1974

The Muslim Brotherhood was behind the massacre, which took place in the Military Technical Academy on April 18, 1974. The MB’s criminal role was revealed by Dr. Ahmed el-Raggal, who was nominated by the MB to take part in the bloody attack, in which 17 military personnel were killed and 65 wounded.  

In an exclusive interview he accorded to Al-Margi’, Al-Raggal disclosed that the attack was part of a military coup planned by Saleh Serriya against late President Anwar Sadat. According to the plan, the attackers first sought to seize weapons in the academy’s armoury before attacking the presidential palace and the television building.  A tipoff from al-Raggal led the security authorities to arrest the plotters hours before they would launch their military coup.

Al-Raggal disclosed that Mohamed al-Pasha, a  leading member of Serriya’s movement, was one of the MB’s veterans. It was al-Pasha, who approached al-Raggal and encouraged him to take part in the military coup against Sadat. “At that time, Sayed Kotb provided inspiration for all Islamists, including members of the MTA’s movement,” said al-Raggal. Young Islamists, he remembered, imbibed Kotb’s writings and ideas, which divided society between believers and non-believers. In his book, Kotb condemned the rulers as devils.  

He explained that three motives were behind Serriya’s military coup: the revival of the Muslim caliphate, avenging Sayed Kotb’s death in his prison and the defeat Egypt had had in its war against Israel in 1967. Together with dozens of his followers, Sayed Kotb was hanged on August 29, 1966 by the regime of late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Al-Raggal said: “Serriya held Abdel-Nasser and his successor Anwar Sadat responsible for the defeat in the 1967’s war.”

In his interview, al-Raggal disclosed a secret agreement reached between the MB and the emirs of the MTA’s movement. He explained: “According to this tacit agreement, the MB would be given the reins of power in Egypt if the military coup succeeded and Sadat was deposed. At that time, the majority of MTA movement comprised novices and inexperienced emirs.”

The military coup was aborted and the perpetrators were arrested. “The MB mobilised a team of lawyers to allegedly defend the suspects. Al-Raggal said: “The MB was not sincere in its bid to defend these suspects,” said al-Raggal. “The MB assigned lawyers only to follow the court hearing and clear the name of the MB if substantial charges against the MB came out,” he said. The MB’s defence team included two of its senior legal advisers: Abdalla Rashwan and Ahmed Abdel-Gawad.    

On the other hand, Talal al-Ansari, one of the emirs of MTA’s movement, disclosed that he had met the MB’s General Guide Hassan al-Hodebi to declare his allegiance. Al-Ansari was given death sentence, which was later mitigated to life imprisonment.

Al-Ansari’s disclosure was made in his memoirs “Unknown Chapters of the Contemporary History of Islamic Movement From the Setback to the Gallows”. According to his account, a clandestine movement they formed in Alexandria in 1968 managed to survive the police crackdown until the MB’s leaders were released from prison. Al-Ansari asked one of the MB’s veterans, Ali Abdu Ismail, to help arrange a meeting with General Guide Hassan el-Hodebi. “Ismail recommended Ms. Zeinab el-Ghazali for this task,” al-Ansari said. During the meeting, which took place in late 1972 in al-Hodebi’s residence in Al-Manyal district in Cairo, al-Ansari took the oath of loyalty to the MB.  

Moreover, according to al-Ansari’s memoirs, el-Ghazali was also the architect of the first meeting between him and Saleh Serriya. Al-Ansari said that the meeting represented the beginning of a new phase in the MB’s history. “Serriya’s first orders of business to the young people were that he was the sole link between them and the MB; and that he had to keep secret  his relationship with the MB from now on,” al-Ansari said in his memoirs.  

According to al-Ansari, the MB’s general guide endorsed Serriya’s strategy to renew its thought and give priority to the use  of armed force to seize power in the country. “It will be illogical to suggest that Serriya’s strategy to launch a coup or a military rebellion was unknown to the MB in Egypt,” said al-Ansari in his memoirs. “They welcomed him and his ideas,” he said. “Moreover, during a meeting that took place at the residence of Zeinab al-Ghazali, the MB’s leaders updated Serriya on their newly-founded youth movement,,” he said.