EXTRACT 3 FROM MY MEMOIR

The Spy Who Fell to Earth: My Relationship with the Secret Agent Who Rocked the Middle East

CHAPTER 1: WHO WAS ASHRAF MARWAN?

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ASHRAF MARWAN WAS AN EGYPTIAN who moved in his country’s ruling political and power circles. He married the daughter of the great Arab leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the ruler of Egypt from 1954 until he died in 1970. Nasser was succeeded by his deputy, Anwar al-Sadat, who turned Marwan into his right-hand man. In this role, Marwan accompanied Sadat on the most sensitive missions and was present in critical meetings in and outside Egypt, particularly in the period leading up to the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt. Being close to the two presidents made Marwan privy to Egypt’s most sensitive secrets. But Marwan was living a double life - for while serving Nasser and Sadat, he also worked for Egypt’s sworn enemy, Israel, as a top spy for the Mossad, Israel’s Intelligence agency.

He was born Mohammad Ashraf Abu el Wafa Marwan in 1944 in Cairo into a respected middle-class family, one of four children of an army officer. Ashraf was a bright and ambitious pupil who excelled in science and was an avid reader, always carrying books he had borrowed from the local library and often found sitting in corners immersing himself in stories from across the world. Upon finishing high school with top grades he went straight to university to study chemistry, instead of joining the military as most youngsters did in Egypt. In 1965, with a university degree under his belt, Marwan joined the Egyptian army as an officer and chemical engineer. Then, his life changed forever: he met and fell in love with Mona, who was three years his junior and the third, most beautiful daughter of Presiden Nasser.

Mona was a student at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at the American University in Cairo, and the first encounter between her and Ashraf took place on the beach in Alexandria. It was not an accidental meeting but was arranged by Marwan’s young sister Uzz, Mona Nasser’s good friend. Love flowered, but when President Nasser heard about his daughter’s new match, he was not impressed, and his doubts were confirmed when his head of bureau, a certain Sami Sharaf, produced a less-than-flattering intelligence report on Marwan, portraying him as a playboy and a reckless opportunist. However, Nasser’s efforts to dissuade his daughter from seeing Marwan were in vain, as she had fallen deeply in love with this charming, dashing, good-looking man. Reluctantly, Nasser gave his permission for them to wed.

On 7 July 1966, the two married in what turned out to be the most glittering social event of the year in Cairo. The entire Egyptian elite attended and the great Egyptian singer Umm Kol Tum, renowned across the Middle East for her beautiful voice, entertained the guests. A picture released to the press after the wedding shows a smiling Marwan shaking hands with his father-in-law, Nasser, on his right, Mona in a beautiful white wedding dress, looking at her father, almost pleading for his approval.

After the wedding, the young couple remained in Cairo. Nasser still mistrusted his new son-in-law, and, to keep an eye on him, he appointed Marwan to a job at the Presidential Information Bureau, which, at the time, was the regime’s nerve centre. Here he’d be supervised by Sami Sharaf - the man who’d written the unflattering intelligence report on Marwan.

Soon Mona gave birth to a son, and while Nasser adored his mischievous grandson, Gamal, his relationship with his son-in-law still failed to improve. Even worse, life close to the suspicious, overwhelming president, whom Marwan would call `Father Gamal,’ and having to spend long hours working under the prying eye of Sami Sharaf, who Marwan knew kept reporting back to Nasser, placed great strain on Marwan’s relationship with Mona. On top of that, the couple also had money worries: while Mona had to stop working to look after baby Gamal, Marwan’s salary of less than 100 Egyptian pounds a month, while reasonable, only allowed for a fairly basic standard of living.

Marwan and Mona might have lived out quietly in Cairo had not one of the Arab world’s most cataclysmic events happened the year after their marriage. In 1967, Egypt and her Arab allies suffered an overwhelming defeat in the June Six-Day War with Israel. The war was a disaster for Egypt - and for Nasser in particular. It had been the Egyptian president whose diplomatic brinkmanship had caused the war, a war in which Egypt lost the entire Sinai desert and Nasser’s Arab allies - Jordan and Syria - also lost vast tracts of land, including the holy sites important for the Muslim world in Arab East Jerusalem. Nasser took personal responsibility for the catastrophe and offered his resignation while the war was still going on, but this was rejected by the Egyptian people who still regarded him as their ultimate leader. His wife, Tahia, describes in her memoir, Nasser: My Husband, how, after giving his speech of resignation, Nasser came back home `took off his suit and put on his pajamas, and lay down on the bed’, but then `the road was blocked with people and …. many of them were crying openly, some sitting on the stairs weeping …. the sound of the crowds was beyond imagination’. Later, Mona came to her mother and said that she had heard that her father had agreed to remain president. So, Nasser stayed as the president, but he never really recovered from the 1967 disaster he had brought on Egypt and the Arab world, and for those living close to him - such as Marwan and Mona - life became unbearable.

To escape, Marwan and Mona decided to get out of Cairo and settle for a while in the UK, with the excuse that Ashraf could begin studying for a Master’s degree in chemistry. Nasser was reluctant - Mona was his favourite daughter, and he wanted her close to him. He also still did not trust his son-in-law. But if there was one thing the great Gamal Abdel Nasser could not resist, it was Mona's pleas, which would often get her mother on her side to pressure Nasser. So, when Mona kept nagging him - begging him - to let her and Ashraf travel to England, Nasser reluctantly agreed.

Ashraf Marwan (Right) on his wedding day with his bride Mona Abdel Nasser, daughter of late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (left), Cairo, 7 July 1966.

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For the young couple, relocation to London was a cultural shock. London was the world capital of cool, a city associated with all things hip and fashionable that had been growing in the popular imagination throughout the decade. It was one of the world’s most dynamic cities, with a fashion and cultural scene contrasting the gloomy Cairo they had left behind.

They settled in a tiny apartment and lived on a small allowance organized for them by Nasser, which Marwan topped up with the money he earned at the Egyptian embassy in a position imposed on him by the president as a way to keep an eye on him. Nasser, as it soon emerged, had good reasons to suspect that his young son-in-law might find it challenging to resist London’s offers and temptations. Indeed, as money was short, Marwan looked for an easy way to get it. He charmed a lady by the name of Soad, a poet who was also the young wife of Abdullah al Mubarak al-Sabbah, a rich Kuwaiti oil Sheik, and she provided Marwan with cash. Later, she would explain that it was wrong for the daughter of the admired President Nasser, her husband, and Nasser’s little grandchild to live a life of poverty in London. True, perhaps, but the money, rather than being used to support his family was spent by Marwan at the gaming tables in London’s casinos. Unfortunately for Marwan, the story soon reached his furious father-in-law, who ordered Marwan’s return to Cairo `on the next flight.’ So, Marwan was put in the Egyptian ambassador’s car, driven to the airport, and accompanied to the aeroplane steps to Cairo, where, as the plane landed, a car was waiting to take him straight to a meeting with Nasser. Reports of the incident describe Marwan’s face as `white as a sheet’ and say he was `trembling like a leaf’ when standing before his furious father-in-law. Nasser summarily demanded that Marwan divorce his daughter, which Mona refused to accept. When things calmed down a bit, new arrangements were put in place: Marwan would pay back the money he had received from the Kuwaiti Sheik’s wife and the couple would return to live in Egypt; Marwan would go back to work at the Presidential Information Bureau in Cairo, where Sami Sharaf could keep an eye on him. As for London, Marwan would fly back there only to hand in his course papers and sit his exams.

This rare film shows the wedding of Ashraf Marwan and Mona Abdel Nasser. The entire Egyptian leadership is present. The great Egyptian singer Umm Kol Tum entertains the guests. Cairo, 7 July 1966.

COMING SOON …

CHAPTER 2: MARWAN VOLUNTEERS FOR THE MOSSAD