Arrest, Trial and Death
In August that year, Amer, along with over 50 Egyptian military officers and two former ministers, was arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow Nasser. He was kept under house arrest at his villa in Giza.
According to the official Egyptian position, Amer was rushed to hospital in an attempt to save his life after he attempted suicide by swallowing "a large amount of poison pills" upon the arrival of Egyptian officers to question him. After surviving and being taken home the next day, he managed to evade his guards and swallow more pills he kept hidden under an adhesive plaster on his leg. Later, Cairo radio announced his burial in his home village of Astal.
One version of the story holds that Amer was approached in his jail cell on September 14 by high-ranking Egyptian officers and was given a choice to remain there and stand trial for treason, which would inevitably have ended with his conviction and execution, or die an honorable death by taking poison. Like Rommel, Amer chose the latter option and received a full military burial. Anwar Al Sadat, who later became President of Egypt, expressed his opinion that if he was in Amer's position, he would have done the same soon after the Six-Day War.
Abdel Hakim Amer was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on May 13, 1964.
Read more about this topic: Abdel Hakim Amer
Famous quotes containing the words trial and/or death:
“You may talk about Free Love, if you please, but we are to have the right to vote. To-day we are fined, imprisoned, and hanged, without a jury trial by our peers. You shall not cheat us by getting us off to talk about something else. When we get the suffrage, then you may taunt us with anything you please, and we will then talk about it as long as you please.”
—Lucy Stone (1818–1893)
“You listen to artists fighting with each other, competing to the death like gladiators, in order to see who is going to get into a show, who is going to make it, who isn’t: who is going to get a full-page ad and who is going to get a half-page. Then I think, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go off somewhere and just do your work?””
—Howardena Pindell (b. 1943)