In 1995, an Egyptian diplomat was murdered in Geneva. 30 years later the mystery remains
On November 13, 1995, Ahmed Alaa El Din Nazmi was killed by six bullets in the basement of his building. The Swiss authorities first evoke a conspiracy of the Islamists and suspect Tariq Ramadan. A drama in 2025, the federal prosecutor accused the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak of being the sponsor.
In Switzerland, there is an unwritten rule, but respected for decades. The country closes its eyes on all operations, even the most obscure, but provided that one does not kill ourselves on its territory. The assassination of a 42 -year -old diplomat, deputy director of the Egyptian mission sales office in Geneva in November 1995 will therefore make the headlines of the international press. Cairo puts pressure, especially since crime is claimed by an unknown organization, the Gama’a of international justice, on behalf of the Palestinian Abdallah Azzam, the father of the “Holy War” against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung of Zurich, reputed to be serious, evokes the stay at the same time on the banks of the Lake Geneva of the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, future successor of Osama bin Laden at the head of Al-Qaeda.
Seam of the Islamic Center
Carla Del Ponte, Confederation prosecutor takes the case in hand. The one who will become a little later prosecutor of the international criminal tribunal of the former Yugoslavia, favors the Islamist track. On November 23, 1995, ten days after the assassination, the Islamic Center of Geneva (CIG), founded by Saïd Ramadan, the son-in-law of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, was searched. Two of the sons of Said Ramadan, Hani and Tariq, are on listening, without result. Why did we target the Ramadan family? “This Egyptian diplomat investigated especially in funds feeding the Islamist movement”, Confides Alain Chouet, former head of the DGSE security intelligence service, formerly stationed in Geneva. Richard Labévière, in “The Dollars of Terror”, published in 1999, was even more precise. On the death of Said Ramadan, which occurred in August 1995, “the family shared an apparently considerable sum that Saïd Ramadan had in management on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt,” he wrote (1).
DNA on the silencer
Clearly, Ahmed Alaa El Din Nazmi would have worked for the Egyptian intelligence services. Which could explain the reasons for its execution. But in fact, the investigation tramples and nothing moves until … 2018. The progress of science, in particular detection algorithms, allow to find the DNA of two people on the silencer of the semi-automatic pistol used for Bring down the diplomat who was found in the basement of his building. The fingerprints belong to “Momo“, a local offender, from Côte d’Ivoire, 26 years old at the time of the facts. His criminal record is long like the arm: “bodily lesions”, “forcible confinement”, “sexual constraints”, “burglaries”, “car flights”. Admittedly, he is a thug, but he does not have the profile of a killer. The other person is one of his former mistresses, aged 20 in 1995. She has been a mother and esthetician since a mother. Far removed from organized crime.
“Indeterminate” sponsors
Swiss justice does not have credible culprits. Admittedly, they touched the silencer. But did they know that he should be used for an execution? To avoid the 30 -year prescription, the trial before the Federal Criminal Court (the equivalent of the Assizes) opens on December 2, 2024 in Bellinzone (Canton of Ticino). , is content to evoke an assassination orchestrated by one or more “unidentified” sponsors, against “an indefinite remuneration”. Usually, to organize this kind of crime, we go through a professional from the outside and who disappears his accomplished package. However, “Momo” and his former mistress have always stayed in the Geneva region and justice could not prove that they would have perceived the slightest amount of money for this “contract”.
Hosni Mubarak in Switzerland
For Marco Renna, the federal prosecutor, “Momo“ is the author of the crime. He demanded a 20 -year prison sentence against him. On the other hand, he innocents his former friend. But a drama, the magistrate, sweeping the Islamist track, denounces a “state” track. The diplomat would have been murdered by the Egyptian power. Marco Renna stresses that the president of the time, Hosni Mubarak, would have come for a while on the banks of Lake Geneva to undergo a cosmetic surgery. In addition, the younger son of the Egyptian president would have landed the day after the homicide in Geneva in the company of two bodyguards … Seriously, how can we imagine that a head of state and his son take the risk of going On the scene of the crime? Doesn’t there be more subtle means to get rid of an annoying official? Rather than having it slaughtered, it is easier to repatriate it to Cairo.
No culprits for this crime
Major question? For what reason for the unhappy Ahmed Alaa El Din Nazmi deserved death? Still according to Marco Renna, the diplomat was not interested in the money of the Islamists, he managed “the accounts of President Mubarak in Switzerland”. During a meal, three days before his assassination, he would have mentioned the management of these accounts with Swiss banks. And he would have “shown himself critical to the Mubarak system”. This brutal reversal of the situation has hardly convinced the judges of the federal criminal tribunal. Considering that “the little evidence and indices available is not enough to demonstrate the participation of defendants in the assassination as such”, “Momo” and his ex-partner are acquitted. However, “Momo”, found guilty of “repeated rape”, “sexual constraints”, “sequestration”, “swindle”, is sentenced to 15 years in prison. But surprise, as the daily life underlines: “the court renounces an internment measure, the risk that it commits other serious crimes once in freedom that does not appear sufficiently important” (2).
As nothing is normal in this case, how not to be surprised by the lack of reaction on the part of Cairo? Swiss justice accuses a former president and there is not the slightest official protest from the Nile! The Egyptian press was also not interested in the trial and the widow of Ahmed Alaa Al-Din Nazmi neither wanted to be complainant, nor be heard by Swiss justice. Still another mystery.
- Grasset, page 166.
- Fati Mansour, “Egyptian diplomat killed in Geneva: federal justice pronounces a double acquittal”, February 6, 2025.
