CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak told newspapers that Ashraf Marwan "was a real Egyptian nationalist and was not a spy to any party at all, reported the Associated Press. The president spoke to newspaper editors last Sunday on his way back to Cairo after attending the African Union summit in Ghana. Marwan died at age 63 when he from the balcony of his London home, causing a frenzy in the local and international media as well as online blogs. The billionaire son-in-law of former President Gamal Abdel Nasser was accused of having been a double agent spy for Egypt and Israel. In order to increase the rate of distribution, the media has meddled in Marwan s personal life, making accusations to sully his reputation, said Gamal Eid, executive director of Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, to The Daily Star Egypt. Commenting on what he called excessive coverage, Eid said the media is supposed to respect the privacy of Egyptian citizens instead of trying to ruin their good name to boost sales, especially since there is no judicial case against Marwan. [The death] is considered non-suspicious, a Scotland Yard spokesman told AP. It s no longer a matter for us. Marwan's high-profile funeral on Sunday was attended by Gamal Mubarak - the president's youngest son and head of the National Democratic Party's policy committee - senior government officials and prominent Egyptian businessmen. Al-Azhar Shiekh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi led the prayers at Marwan s funeral, and his casket was covered with the Egyptian flag. Gamal Mubarak was also seen hugging Mona Abd El-Nasser, Marwan's widow, in an emotional scene at the funeral, the press reported, emphasizing the strong bonds between the Mubarak and Abd El-Nasser families. Melody Satellite movie and music channels started broadcasting again Monday after being shut down for two days. The two channels are owned by Marwan's son, businessman Gamal Marawan. Visibly absent from the funeral were members of former President Anwar Sadat's family, said news reports, although Sadat had awarded Marwan Egypt s highest honor for his actions during the war. Amin Howeidi, head of Egypt s General Intelligence in the late 1960s, told AP that Marwan s case had been handled wrongly. This is a case that has to do with national security, that s why it is serious. ... This is not just talk of the day but a subject addressed in Israeli media and books. "Investigation committees should have been formed to find out the truth, Howeidi told the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera. According to AP, Israeli media reports indicate that Marwan first walked into the Israeli Embassy in London in 1969 and volunteered to give information, but was rejected. The reports go on to claim that he was later recruited by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. General Eli Zeira, who headed the Israeli military intelligence in 1973, believed Marwan to be a double agent for Israeli and Egyptian intelligence during Israel's war with Egypt and Syria. According Haaretz newspaper, Zeira released Marwan's name to the press in 2003 as a double agent who betrayed Israeli intelligence, which put Marwan s life in danger. Maj. Gen Eli Zeira, who was fired from his position as head of Israeli s military intelligence over the country s failure to predict the 1973 Arab attack, said in a 1993 book that Israel was caught by surprise because it was led astray by a double agent he did not identify. Marwan s name was later leaked to the press. Zvi Zamir, the head of Mossad during the war, accused Zeira in 2004 of leaking the agent s name to journalists to explain his own failures. Zeira hit back by suing Zamir for libel. The case ended just last month. The way he died made people even more skeptical of Marwan's past. An article on Intellibriefs blog echoed media skepticism over his strange accident - Marwan is the third Egyptian to have jumped off a balcony in London. Six years ago in June, famous Egyptian actress Soad Hosni was said to have thrown herself off the balcony of a residential tower in Maida Vale, North London. In the mid-1970s, Leithy Nassif, former head of the presidential guard under the late Egyptian president Sadat, threw himself off a balcony in the very same tower in Maida Vale. The common denominator between the three is that they all had intelligence links and were supposed to have been writing their memoirs at the time of their alleged suicides. Additional reporting by the AP
