SADAT'S NEPHEW GETS IN TROUBLE. The 25-year anniversary of the assassination (video link) of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat passed last Friday without much hoopla here in Cairo. Many journalists, including my friend Zvika Krieger, used the occasion to reflect on Sadat's major legacy: the Camp David Accords. Sadat's nephew Talaat, for his part, has made a splash here by suggesting in different venues that current President Hosni Mubarak was involved in the assassination, and that the military guard looked the other way. A deputy in the Egyptian People's Assembly, Talaat had his parliamentary immunity stripped for making such allegations (slandering or otherwise insulting the president is a crime in Egypt) on an Al-Arabiya talk show. He also claims that the U.S. and Israel were in on the plot. The younger Sadat's trial began Wednesday in a military court (because he "insulted" the military in his comments). In an ironic twist, his lawyer is Montasser al-Zayyat, who was once the lawyer for many Islamist militants -- including al-Qaeda's #2 man Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was among those arrested for his connection to the assassins of Uncle Anwar. In a region infamously awash in conspiracy theories, the idea that Mubarak was in league with Islamic Jihad to kill Sadat is one of the best (and it gets more elaborate). More details on the case here.
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Blake Hounshell