Tahrir - The Last 18 Days of Mubarak

TAHRIR
- The Last 18 Days of Mubarak
By Abdellatif El-Menawy

300pp • 129x198mm
ISBN: 978-1-908531-12-4
Price: £12.50
Publication: October 2012

About the Author
Abdellatif El-Menawy was Head of News at the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, the Egyptian equivalent of the BBC, overseeing all news content. He also established Radio Misr (Radio Egypt) the first thematic radio station of its kind mixing news with contemporary music which would prove to be one of the most popular radio stations in Egypt.

Michael Binyon, who introduces this book, is a former Diplomatic Editor of The Times and for many years Leader Writer.

The gripping eyewitness account of Egypt's last days under Ho

As Controller of Egypt's television and radio Abdel Latif El-Menawy was a first-hand witness to the historic events of January 2011. Besieged inside the State TV building for 18 days, El-Menawy was constantly in touch with the President and the ruling clique led by the President's son and heir apparent, Gamal, as well as ministers and officers at the highest levels of the Defence and Intelligence services.

... an excerpt from the account:

Day Three
It was almost five o’clock when a well-built Republican Presidential Guard officer in bulletproof body armour, carrying his gun, entered my office, flanked by two soldiers.
“The Television building is fully under our control, it is totally secure against protesters’ attempts to storm in, all live studios are under heavy security,” he declared, “any movement in or out of the building has to be in coordination with us.”
It was dusk of Friday the 28th of January, a day known as the “Friday of Rage” by revolutionary Egyptians. In the office, people’s eyes were red, streaming with tears from the stinging tear gas that the police had been launching at protesters all day down in the square. As the day turned to night we could still see the scenes of confrontation and conflict between protesters and the security forces. We had just seen a CCTV feed of police bombarding protesters with teargas and water cannon atop the Kasr El-Nil Bridge, one of many that stretches across the Nile. Thousands of protesters faced thousands of policemen in a constant game of hit and run, until the police finally gave way and a wave of protesters swept across the bridge towards Tahrir Square. Within seconds, the police were gone. It was as if they had never even been there. It seemed that Egypt’s institutions had disappeared; all that remained was the army out on the streets and the three remaining offices where we worked, on the 5th floor of the State TV building in downtown Cairo. Neither I, nor any of my colleagues or assistants had any idea what was going on that night.

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