After Ashmawy executed, families of martyrs say Egypt avenged its sons

Egypt’s most wanted terrorist Hesham El-Ashmawy was executed today.

El-Ashmawy, also known as Abu Omar El-Mohager, is considered among the most dangerous terrorists linked to many attacks in Egypt, including an assault on security forces in El-Wahat el-Bahariya in 2017 and the assassination attempt on former Egyptian Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim.

Manar Selim, wife of late colonel Ahmed el-Mansy, commander of the Sa’ka Forces, who was killed during clashes between Egyptian army forces and militants in Rafah, North Sinai, told The Reference in an interview that she and her elder son were delighted when they knew Ashmawy got captured and executed .

“Now I can rest,” Selim said. “If my husband was here, he would have been happy too… this news made all Egyptians happy, and we are waiting for justice to be served.”

“How could you do that to yourself? How did you reach this state of becoming a hated man? What did you gain?” Selim added. “The scene of Ashmawy getting off the plane while in shackles reflects Egypt’s power.”

Another wife of a senior Armed Forces officer, Brigadier General Adel Ragaie, said she had never doubted that Ashmawy will be captured and executed.

“It is a shame that this person was in the Armed Forces, but betrayal always existed in the human nature since the dawn of age,” Samia Zain el-Abidine said. “This traitor deserves the toughest punishment.”

Capturing Ashmawy is deemed a great victory for Egypt in its war against terrorism. In January 2015, his group staged a multi-pronged attack on the headquarters of the Army Battalion 101 Headquarters in El-Arish in North Sinai, which killed 30 soldiers and officers.

An Egyptian military court sentenced him in absentia, along with 13 other terrorists, to death over the New Valley massacre in Farafra on 19 July 2014, where 22 border guards were killed.

“I believer in God’s will and plan, my son spent 14 months in the army before he went to Rafah,” Ramadan Ali, father of soldier Ahmed Ramadan who was shot dead during an assault on a recruits bus in Sinai in 2013, said.

“I did not only remember my sons when I watched Ashmawy in shackles, but remembered the assault on security forces in the Wahat attack. I used to say the officers and soldiers who were killed in the attack everyday on my way to work,” he added.