By Mahmoud Mourad Obituary: Zakaria Mohieddin (5 July 1918-15 May 2012) Zakaria Mohieddin, whose military funeral headed by Field Marshal Tantawi took place on Tuesday, was not only an admirable man but a national symbol. He is the very embodiment of revolution. But Mohieddin was not just a revolutionary; he was a statesman and a soldier. He had grown close to Gamal Abdel-Nasser during the Falluja siege in the 1948 War. They grew inseparable, and Mohieddin quickly joined the Free Officers, becoming instrumental to their eventual success. In the decisive hours between 22 and 23 July 1952, he sat down to formulate the plan of attack for the Free Officer-led troops with a view to securing leadership points and vital state bodies. He presented it to Nasser who discussed and approved it before it was implemented almost to the letter. A silent man well-known for his intelligence, he remained that way till the last day of his life. He would not speak even when he was called on to do so to defend the revolution against attack in the second half of the 1970s. Mohieddin was the third minister of interior after the July Revolution, after Suleiman Hafez, former State Council Deputy, and Nasser. It was under his supervision at this time that the General Intelligence service was established, to be headed by fellow Free Officer Salah Nasr. Consistently successful, in the early 1960s he became prime minister and interior minister; and he steered the country through an inflation crisis with finesse -- something Nasser discussed in a public address in Port Said. At the time I was a young journalist at Al-Ahram and like everyone else I knew that, due to his position, Mohieddin was deeply feared. I happened to find out about a case of money and jewellery smuggled abroad in which both Egyptians and foreigners were implicated: some had been arrested while others were in flight abroad. Due to the importance of the case, there was a ban on publishing any information on it. For a whole month I followed and recorded the details of the case until I was convinced that nothing new would transpire and judged it safe to publish the story. I wrote a long reportage detailing the case and managed to have pictures taken of the suspects held at the Citadel Jail on the pretext that I was doing a feature on the jail -- and presented the piece for publication. So Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, the editor at that time, summoned and asked me how I thought we could publish the piece with the ban on publication in place. I explained to him my viewpoint, which he accepted -- he agreed to publish. It was a great scoop with a prominent news item on the front page and the whole of page three. The appearance of the paper the next morning caused a major stir: people finally found out about the smugglers; newspapers were upset because they missed the scoop; some imagined that the government had leaked the news to Al-Ahram even though this was not true; even Interior Ministry officials were unsure how to respond to us breaking the ban. With a boldness I am still proud of, I went to the ministry headquarters myself and, while I was waiting at the entrance, the lift door opened and there before me was Zakaria Mohieddin followed by his deputy General Youssef Hafez -- who eventually smiled and introduced me to the minister, who shook my hand with chuckle, saying, "You come here after you do your deed, aren't you afraid?" I explained to him that the case no longer had tail ends and that the story made people aware of the efforts of the ministry and warned people against smuggling. He patted my shoulder and, by way of saying good-bye, said, "Anyway, bravo! Keep it up." Eventually Mohieddin became vice president. During the crisis preceding the 1967 War, Nasser agreed with US President Linden Johnson to send Mohieddin to Washington for talks with him on 5 June -- but that was the date of the American-backed Israeli attack. When Nasser attempted to step down Mohieddin realised he would become president. He rushed to Nasser's house to find it surrounded by demonstrators calling on Nasser to stay in power -- and, thinking he was there to take over the presidential residence, some even attacked Mohieddin. I am sure he didn't mind.
