Infamous Murders: Murder in High Office
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People who are elected to high office nearly always do so at great risk to themselves. As history shows it is impossible to protect such people all the time. A determined assassin will do anything to reach his target.
Anwar Sadat had been president of Egypt for eleven years when on the 6th of October 1981 a truck full of armed soldiers pulled up in front of the presidential stand at a military review in Cairo.
Without warning, the soldiers jumped out of the truck and began firing guns and throwing grenades into the crowd. The attackers were soon overwhelmed and taken prisoner but Sadat had already been shot dead.
Muslim fundamentalists had opposed Sadat's signing of The Peace Treaty with Israel in Washington 1979. At their trial, all 24 defendants pleaded not guilty to murder, saying Sadat had been justly executed in the cause of Islam. Sadat lost his life in pursuit of peace in the Middle East.
On the 4th of November 1995 Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's veteran prime minister, attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv. As Rabin was walking towards his car at the end of the evening, gunshots rang out and he fell to the ground.
His 27-year-old attacker was Yigal Amir, a member of Israel's extreme right wing Jewish movement. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Rabin's main ambition was a lasting peace with the Palestinians - and if he expected danger if was from them, not from his fellow countrymen. But the Jewish extremists responsible for his death regarded his peace negotiations as traitorous to his country.
On the 6th of September, 1966, a man wielding a long sword attacked Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, the South African Prime Minister. Verwoerd was stabbed four times and was dead by the time he reached a Cape Town hospital.
His killer, 25-year-old Dimitri Tsafendas, was arrested on the spot, and later declared insane. An elaborate state funeral was held for Verwoerd in Pretoria a few days later, but the majority black population was largely unrepresented.
Verwoerd was regarded as the architect of apartheid, and few mourned the passing of a man who had prioritized black/white segregation since he became Prime Minister in 1958.
Anwar Sadat had been president of Egypt for eleven years when on the 6th of October 1981 a truck full of armed soldiers pulled up in front of the presidential stand at a military review in Cairo.
Without warning, the soldiers jumped out of the truck and began firing guns and throwing grenades into the crowd. The attackers were soon overwhelmed and taken prisoner but Sadat had already been shot dead.
Muslim fundamentalists had opposed Sadat's signing of The Peace Treaty with Israel in Washington 1979. At their trial, all 24 defendants pleaded not guilty to murder, saying Sadat had been justly executed in the cause of Islam. Sadat lost his life in pursuit of peace in the Middle East.
On the 4th of November 1995 Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's veteran prime minister, attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv. As Rabin was walking towards his car at the end of the evening, gunshots rang out and he fell to the ground.
His 27-year-old attacker was Yigal Amir, a member of Israel's extreme right wing Jewish movement. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Rabin's main ambition was a lasting peace with the Palestinians - and if he expected danger if was from them, not from his fellow countrymen. But the Jewish extremists responsible for his death regarded his peace negotiations as traitorous to his country.
On the 6th of September, 1966, a man wielding a long sword attacked Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, the South African Prime Minister. Verwoerd was stabbed four times and was dead by the time he reached a Cape Town hospital.
His killer, 25-year-old Dimitri Tsafendas, was arrested on the spot, and later declared insane. An elaborate state funeral was held for Verwoerd in Pretoria a few days later, but the majority black population was largely unrepresented.
Verwoerd was regarded as the architect of apartheid, and few mourned the passing of a man who had prioritized black/white segregation since he became Prime Minister in 1958.
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Infamous Murders: Murder by Decree
Sat 20th Sep, 2PM
