Pierre Loza finds out that the man accused of leading a street gang that allegedly murdered and raped dozens of street children was viewed as a simpleton by those who knew him The two-week saga surrounding the capture of an 11-member gang that is believed to have committed a series of rapes and murders in a number of governorates, including Cairo, Alexandria, Al-Beheira and Qalioubya, has prompted concern about the perennial problem of street children. According to interrogations, 26-year-old Ramadan Abdel-Rahman, also known as El-Torbini (meaning express train), is the gang leader who ordered the murders of numerous street children. Although Abdel-Rahman and his accomplices allegedly led investigators to more than 10 bodies in scattered parts of the country, they also took them to Marsa Matruh where no bodies were found. But after being remanded in custody for an additional 10 days, gang members are said to have confessed to killing more than 30 street children. The first body which prompted the arrest of El-Torbini belonged to 12-year-old Ahmed Nagui, who was found in Tanta last month. According to Ahmed El-Seweisi, described as El-Torbini's right hand man, the victim was part of El-Torbini's crew before their relationship went sour because Nagui refused to have sexual relations with El-Torbini. Nagui complained to the authorities and El-Torbini was jailed for six months. Upon his release, the gang leader was determined on revenge. The young boy was lured by other gang members to Tanta's desolate water reservoir, where El-Torbini was waiting. After being gang raped and tied up, Nagui was thrown from atop the reservoir by El-Torbini, according to El-Seweisi's testimony. During interrogation, Abdel-Rahman claimed to have acquired his street name after being raped and thrown off a train by a thug named Abdu El-Torbini, causing him permanent eye, leg and stomach injuries. Other accounts say he got his nickname from his fascination with trains. Abdel-Rahman's family has ardently denied reports of rape and murder, claiming that he is mentally retarded. "My brother never finished school because the administration felt he needed special care because he was mentally retarded," older brother Mohamed Abdel-Rahman told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Ramadan spent a lot of time playing in the toilets and playground instead of attending classes." Their single mother worked long hours to support her four children, and there was no one to look after them. Abdel-Rahman believes the entire case is fictitious, as is the story of his youngest brother being raped by the thug El-Torbini. At the time, Ramadan had said the injuries were sustained when he fell asleep on top of a moving train. "I think they chose my brother to bear the brunt for these murders because they thought he had no family and no friends to defend him," suspected Abdel-Rahman. The biggest problem with the younger brother was that he often ran away and was arrested for vagabonding, recounted Abdel-Rahman. Despite being the black sheep of the family, Ramadan did not possess the calculating mind to lead a gang of criminals. "He was like a big baby; the neighbourhood mostly pitied him due to his handicap," added Abdel-Rahaman. "When my mother gave my children money for treats, Ramadan asked for the same; how could such a simpleton be a gang leader?" Without the documents to prove it, Abdel-Rahman maintains that his brother was admitted to the Intellectual Development Institute for the Handicapped in 1988, which would imply that he is mentally handicapped. But the institute denies it. There is paperwork, however, to prove Abdel-Rahman was admitted to the Youth Correctional Facility (YCF) in Giza in 1999. In fact, his file at YCF could be proof that his medical records have been tampered with. The older brother said that when reporters reviewed the medical file, "all the papers were yellowed by age, except the admittance paper which was brand new," he said. "This implies something improper is going on." At the Giza correctional facility, Abdel-Rahman met Mohamed Abdel-Hamid who would become his counsellor on-and- off for the following four years. Abdel-Hamid told the Weekly they had a closer bond than an average therapist-patient relationship, and the patient was probably never visited by his family. The therapist asserted that Abdel-Rahman was a 26- year-old of low intelligence but not mentally retarded or handicapped. Speaking with a lisp and his tongue partially jutting out of the corner of his mouth, Abdel-Rahman most noticeably ate large quantities of food and kept to himself. "I think he ate so much because he was suppressing his emotions; food was his only release," according to Abdel-Hamid. The antithesis of a troublemaker, Abdel-Rahman is remembered as timid, meek and relatively immobile. "If a classmate pinched him jokingly, he would squeal like a baby and shout for help," recounted Abdel-Hamid. "I find it difficult to believe that he is a gang leader, but maybe he changed on the streets over the past three years. Nonetheless, I find it hard to believe that anyone can change from one extreme to another." Abdel-Rahman told his peers in the correctional facility that he fell off a train because he was asleep, and later confided to his counsellor that he was raped in the past "but did not tie the two incidents together." He further confessed that he was raped while living on the streets by thugs who would hold him at knife point and take the money he made from begging. The only time Abdel-Rahman showed aggression is when a social worker named Hosni was escorting him to visit his family in the Delta projects in Salam City, stated the therapist. "On the way there, he told Hosni that he could cut him up and throw him like red meat in the desert, but because he loved him and me, he would not do it," Abdel-Hamid reported. When the counsellor confronted Abdel-Rahman with these statements, he did not deny them but said it was a test to see if Hosni would change his pleasant ways. "He said Hosni was very kind to him despite the threat, buying him lunch and bringing him back safely to the institution," added Abdel-Hamid. In the Delta projects where El-Torbini's family has lived for the past two decades, neighbours find the media's portrayal of Abdel-Rahman as a notorious killer absurd. "No one has ever had any trouble with him because we knew he wasn't a grown-up," said Sabir Abdallah, who lives on the same street as Abdel-Rahman. "A child could scare him into running away." Another neighbour, Reda Saleh, 33, has a hard time believing what the newspapers are reporting. "He used to play with children much younger than him, and he never once hit them or got into a fight," Saleh said. Abdel-Rahman's brother-in-law Mohamed Ahmed said that he was easily intimidated and would readily lie if someone shouted at him. "If I showed him a picture of my son and gave him a good yell, he would probably say 'yes, sir, I killed him'," predicted Ahmed. "He's that kind of person."
