Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour Explained

Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour
Birth Place:Tanta, Gharbia, Egypt
Death Date:December 16, 2010 (aged 30)
Death Place:Burj Al Arab Prison, Egypt
Alias:Al-Tourbini
Conviction:Murder
Conviction Penalty:Death
Conviction Status:Executed
Victims:32+
Occupation:Street gang leader
Death Cause:Execution by hanging
Country:Egypt
Beginyear:2004
Endyear:2006

Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour (Arabic: رمضان عبدالرحيم منصور; [1]  - December 16, 2010), also known as al-Tourbini (Arabic: التوربيني;), was an Egyptian street gang leader and serial killer who raped and murdered at least 32 children and youth in the course of seven years, throughout several locations in Egypt including Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyoubeya and Beni Sueif.[2] [3] [4] All of his victims were 10 to 14 years old, most of them boys.[4] Mansour was arrested in 2006 along with his six accomplices, and subsequently executed.[5]

Crimes

Mansour left his home in Tanta, a town north of Cairo, and joined a street gang at an early age. Gang leaders taught him skills of survival, allegedly cutting him with razors whenever he made a mistake.[4] According to his confession, Mansour soon learned how to get back at those who crossed him: raping them, and murdering anyone who threatened to go to the police afterwards.[4] One of the victims, 12-year-old boy Ahmed Nagui, had been a member of Mansour's gang. When Mansour tried to sexually assault him, Nagui reported him to the police, and Mansour was arrested but was released for lack of evidence. Soon after, Mansour raped and murdered Nagui in retaliation, according to the prosecutors.[4]

Mansour frequently traveled between Cairo and Alexandria by train. He felt safer in Alexandria because it had fewer police officers.[4] The Vice Department of Borg El-Arab police station in Alexandria started keeping a profile on him during this time.[4] Mansour and his gang members lured street children onto the carriage roof of the trains, where they then stripped, raped and tortured them, and tossed them naked onto the trackside, dead or barely alive.[2] [4] Some of the children were dumped into the Nile, or buried alive.[4] Mansour and his gang's crimes came to light in 2006 when two of his gang members were arrested, and Mansour acquired the nickname al-Tourbini, meaning "express train", from his favorite location for the crimes.[2] After the arrest, Mansour reportedly told prosecutors that he was possessed by a female jinn who commanded him to commit the crimes.[4] Mansour, along with his accomplice Farag Samir Mahmoud, also known as "Hanata", were convicted and sentenced to death by the criminal court in Tanta in 2007.[5] Mansour and Mahmoud were both executed by hanging at Burj Al Arab Prison on Thursday, December 16, 2010.[6] [7]

Five other accomplices were also convicted in the case, but spared execution. They instead received prison sentences ranging between three and forty years.[8]

Commercialization of the name

Soon after the arrest, al-Ahram, a widely circulated Egyptian newspaper, reported that some products in Egypt were being named after Mansour's nickname, "al-Tourbini".[1] [2] Several restaurants in Mansour's hometown, Tanta, started selling a so-called "al-Tourbini sandwich", allegedly in demand by young locals.[1] [2] Sheep merchants gave the name "al-Tourbini" to the large-size lamb priced at more than .[1] Some tuk-tuk drivers named their vehicles "al-Tourbini" to attract customers.[1] According to al-Ahram, the "strangest such marketing ploy" was that of owners of supermarkets and communications centers in Tanta were renaming their businesses "al-Tourbini: The Butcher of Gharbia". Author and journalist John R. Bradley commented in his book Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution that "this reaction borders on the incomprehensible, but what it clearly indicates is that something has gone terribly wrong" with contemporary Egyptian society.[9]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: 'Turbini' murders sensationalized . Ahmed . Maged . December 29, 2006 . . January 20, 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100214025530/http://thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4726 . February 14, 2010 .
  2. Book: Bradley, John R. . Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution . John R. Bradley . 199–200 . 978-1-4039-8477-7 . 2008 . Palgrave Macmillan .
  3. Web site: Qatr an-Nada: Towards a Fair Start for Children in the Arab World . Arab Resource Collective . 2007 . January 20, 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110727072155/http://www.mawared.org/english/files/Qatrannada11.pdf . July 27, 2011 .
  4. Web site: Killing Kids . Manal . el-Jesri . Egypt Today . January 2007 . January 20, 2009 . December 9, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081209065903/http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7119 . dead .
  5. News: World News Quick Take: Gang leaders get death . . May 25, 2007 . January 20, 2009 . June 11, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080611154523/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/05/25/2003362396 . live .
  6. Web site: Radi . Sami Abdel . Convicted Child Rapists, Murderers Executed by the State . Egypt Independent . 7 October 2020 . 16 December 2010 . March 24, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220324035333/https://egyptindependent.com/convicted-child-rapists-murderers-executed-state/ . live .
  7. Web site: إعدام "التوربيني" ومساعده في قضية "أطفال الشوارع" المصري اليوم . 2022-03-25 . www.almasryalyoum.com . ar . January 18, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180118193156/http://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/100466 . live .
  8. Web site: 2010-12-16. Convicted child rapists, murderers executed by state. 2022-02-07. Egypt Independent. en-US. March 24, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220324035333/https://egyptindependent.com/convicted-child-rapists-murderers-executed-state/. live.
  9. Book: Bradley, John R. . Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution . John R. Bradley . 200 . 978-1-4039-8477-7 . 2008 . Palgrave Macmillan .