On Monday, Al-Masry Al-Youm obtained the text of the confessions of judge Ayman Haggag, who is accused of killing his wife, TV presenter Shaima Gamal, jointly with his friend Hussein al-Garably, the owner of a company – and burying her body on a farm in the Abu Sir area in Badrashin, south of Giza.
The first defendant, aged 52, said during the investigations: “I married presenter Shaima Gamal on February 17, 2019 with an official marriage document. We hid our official marriage because I was already married to the mother of my children. During this time, we agreed to keep hiding and not to announce our marriage. But Shaima was demanding and materialistic and started threatening me to disclose my secrets and the secrets of my work partner, in a field different than my profession. She bargained me over my wealth in exchange for not disclosing my secrets, so I planned to get rid of her.”
“I called my partner, Hussein al-Garably, and we put a plan to kill her and get rid of her. My friend suggested killing and burying her in a remote area difficult to reach. We kept looking for a farm until we found it in the Badrashin area, then we bought the crime tools, which were drilling tools, chains, and aqua fortis.”
The accused judge added: “I and my partner went to the farm before I told Shaima and deceived her into buying a farm for her, the trick with which I lured her to the place of her murder, knowing that she loves money. Then we dug a grave deep and prepared everything, and I went to Shaima and told her that I agreed to her terms. I told her I bought her a large farm in Badrashin in her name, but she should inspect it in advance before purchase.”
“Shaima was extremely happy when she first knew, and accompanied me without thinking. At this time, my partner was waiting for us. Once we entered the farm, we locked the door. I had a pistol so I kept hitting her head until the blood came out from every corner, and she was screaming and crying for help.”
“She was screaming and crying and saying: please have mercy on me. Take everything, but let me live. I have a girl who needs me, but I didn’t listen to her words and continued beating her, and then we pushed her on the ground and came down on her and I chocked her with a piece of cloth until she died”.
“Then we tied the body with chains and dragged it to the grave we were digging and threw her. We threw aqua fortis on her in order to disfigure the features of the crime, and we filled the grave then left. I went to the October police station and I filed a report of her absence.”
The postmortem showed signs of blows and suffocation to the victim’s body.
These medical investigations were in line with the recounting of the husband and the second accused who said he hit her with the back of a gun and then strangled her.
Examinations of the body also showed that there were traces of mutilation on the face and the upper part of the body, to hide the features of the victim.
The body was transferred to the Zeinhom Morgue, at the disposal of the Public Prosecution, which asked the forensic doctors to determine the causes of death in preparation for issuing a decision to bury the victim by her family.
The second accused helped investigators locate the body in the farm where the crime occurred.
A press statement, issued by the Public Prosecutor, said the prosecution received a report from the husband saying that his wife has been absent since she disappeared at a commercial complex in the 6 October City, without suspecting anyone.
As prosecutors started investigation, the second accused came forward and confirmed his close relationship with the victim’s husband, and expressed his desire to make statements that implicated the reporting husband in the murder of his wife due to disagreements between them.
He confirmed that he witnessed the murder and knew where her body was buried.
Prosecutors ordered the arrest of the husband judge and traced his itinerary on the day of committing the crime, which confirmed the story of the second accused.
The Egyptian Public Prosecution referred the accused judge and his friend to a criminal trial on Thursday.
The Public Prosecutor’s decision stated that Haggag committed premeditated murder to get rid of the victim after she bargained him for money in return for not revealing his secrets.
The forensic report showed that the death of the victim was due to suffocation and putting pressure on her neck and airways.
The Public Prosecution established evidence against the accused, from the testimony of ten witnesses, including the owner of the store from which the two accused bought drilling tools and aqua fortis, as well as the statements of the two accused in detail during interrogations, which began with the second accused guiding the police to the location of the body on the farm.
The Public Prosecution is investigating the first accused over other crimes, it stated.
