Egypt

Bus driver reenacts shootings, says he felt nothing

Bus driver, Mahmoud Sweilam, who worked for Arab Contractors, is charged with killing six fellow employees and injuring a further 16 whilst driving them to work on Tuesday morning.

During a visit to the crime scene on Wednesday evening, Seweilam, 54, reiterated his guilt to a team of prosecutors. The second confession was delivered during a reenactment of the shootings which happened near the Arab Contractors’ headquarters.

Seweilam went through a step-by-step reenactment of the crime using the actual bus in which the killings occurred, an unloaded machine gun and an empty bag.  He showed prosecutors how he had hidden a machine gun and the satchel containing the ammunition under the driver’s seat.  Nine “extras” played the roles of those killed and injured.

When he had finished shooting, the driver explained how he threw his gun behind the seat, closed the doors of the bus and drove to the company’s headquarters.

Seweilam told investigators that though he felt no particular resentment towards his other victims, he was particularly angry with Abdel Fateh Salem, a colleague and neighbor who was among the dead.  He said that Salem had mocked him after he had refused to dig for antiquities under his house.

Police stopped traffic on the Cairo—Assiut road for 20 minutes for the reenactment.

The district attorney received the results of the autopsies on Thursday as well as forensic reports on the gun and ammunition used.

Victims received gunshot wounds to the chest and head from close range. Salem was shot 15 times, while the other passengers were all shot between one and four times, according to the reports.

The district attorney ordered Seweilam to be held an additional ten days pending the transfer of his case to the Cairo Criminal Court.

Translated from the Arabic Edition.
 

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