Death on the Nile corniche

Two weeks after the dramatic murder of a young influential businessman, the incident continues to be the talk of town. Amira Howeidy follows up the case
It has all the elements of a sensational thriller -- a showdown between two of the city's wealthy elite that ended in murder. The victim: a handsome, extremely wealthy young businessman. The killer: another young and wealthy businessman. The scene of the crime: a trendy restaurant for the affluent and famous.
The murder sent shock waves across the city and left Egyptians scurrying to gobble up every salacious detail published by the press, despite the painfully obvious inaccuracies. The key words associated with the crime -- power, money, body guards, nightclub, women and AUC (the American University in Cairo) -- have whipped up the imagination of a society consisting largely of the under-privileged.
It took prosecutors 10 days of investigations to refer the case, last Sunday, to the criminal court for an "urgent trial." Why urgent? "This is a public opinion case," responded Amr Abdel-Latif, an assistant district attorney for the Bulaq neighbourhood. "They are important people in society and the murder took place in a five-star restaurant. It didn't involve thugs fighting in a baladi [local] place somewhere."
The "massacre," as it has so frequently been described by the press, took place in the early hours of 12 April, at the Pizza Pomodoro restaurant, which recently reopened in Arcadia Mall overlooking the Nile in the Bulaq district. According to police investigations, the victim, 37-year-old Mahmoud Rawhi, chairman of the board of Hertz, Egypt, the country's top car rental company, was stabbed to death by Omar Mohamed Gamaleddin, better known as Omar El-Hawari, a 29-year-old businessman, with a butterfly knife.
Although the investigations didn't reveal a reason for the hostility between the two men, this detail seems undisputed and it led to the fight that took place at Pomodoro two weeks ago. The confrontation in the club took place in the presence of so many people packing the restaurant that it is no wonder so much speculation remains rife about the evening's events. The prosecutor-general has decided to put El-Hawari on trial for charges of deliberately killing Rawhi, but public opinion holds many other theories.
El-Hawari has a violent record, which includes gouging someone's eye and wrecking a restaurant in a fight. He is said to have publicly vowed to kill Rawhi, but whether there is adequate evidence to prove that he did so is an open question. For one thing, the murder weapon was recovered 48 hours after the crime -- clean, after it was washed by a waiter who said he found it after the fight among scattered dirty glasses. He took it and washed it, destroying -- deliberately or not -- all the evidence it could have held. It is clear that investigators are having difficulty putting together the case as the information made available to the press by prosecution officials lacks even the basics. On the other hand, the families of the two protagonists seem to be the only ones doing the talking -- each telling the story from their own perspective.
Rawhi's family argues that their son, a graduate of the AUC, was a well-bred, loving father of two boys, and a faithful husband to his wife, Shorouq. They say Rawhi, known as "Dandy," had criticised El-Hawari for ill behaviour and cautioned him to treat people with more respect. According to Rawhi's family, this incensed El-Hawari, who threatened to kill Rawhi if he saw him again -- which he did, on 12 April. On the night of the murder, Rawhi found a mutual friend between them seated with El-Hawari. Indicating El-Hawari, Rawhi asked his friend, "why are you sitting with such rubbish?". According to Rawhi's family, El-Hawari immediately broke his wine glass, hit Rawhi on the head, then drew a knife and stabbed him in the abdomen, right up to his heart. He then cut Rawhi's leg veins and escaped. "He mutilated our son. This is a vicious murder, a deliberate one, and it shouldn't pass without severe punishment," his father said. Rawhi died almost immediately after he was admitted to hospital.
His family published an obituary the following day, as any Egyptian family would. However, it began with a Qur'anic verse that refers to "retribution." To them, the only acceptable retribution is a death sentence for El-Hawari.
Not surprisingly, El-Hawari's family tells a very different story. His mother argues that her son is a victim. It was Rawhi, she insisted, who attacked her son and beat him viciously, to the extent that he fell to the floor unconscious. When he regained consciousness, Rawhi had already been stabbed. El-Hawari recounted the same story to the prosecutor. "Go search for the real murderer, because it wasn't me," he said. His mother argued: "My son is a successful young businessmen who had every reason to look forward to his future; he couldn't possibly have sacrificed all this to commit something that brutal."
El-Hawari is currently in custody, and his trial will be held on 6 May. Although many believe that given his family's position in society and their wealth, El-Hawari will not receive a death sentence, speculation remains rife on how the case will end. Rawhi, with his smiling pictures spread across newspapers and the covers of every magazine, has garnered a lot of sympathy. But he is not here to defend his case. The defendant, not so good-looking and already dubbed "the murderer" by the press, has a long battle to fight -- certainly more challenging than the one he encountered in Pomodoro. It is about power and influence versus justice. And everyone is waiting.
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