Shams Badran

Shams Al Din Badran (Arabic: شمس الدين بدران‎; 19 April 1929 – 28 November 2020) was an Egyptian government official. He served as minister of defence of Egypt during Gamal Abdel Nasser's era and the unsuccessful Six-Day War of 1967. He was removed from his post during the war and later imprisoned. After his release he married a British woman and lived in "self-imposed exile" in the United Kingdom.

Shams Badran
Minister of Defence
In office
1966–1967
PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser
Preceded byAbdel Wahab Al Bishri
Succeeded byAmin Howeidi
Personal details
Born(1929-04-19)19 April 1929
Giza, Kingdom of Egypt
Died28 November 2020(2020-11-28) (aged 91)
Plymouth, United Kingdom
NationalityEgyptian
Alma materMilitary academy

Early life and education

Badran was born on 19 April 1929.[1][2] He attended a military academy and graduated in 1948.[1] He participated in the 1947–1949 Palestine war and earned the Gold Medal of Merit from Farouk of Egypt as he fought at Al-Faluja.[2] He was later sent on a military scholarship to France.[2]

Career

Badran was the head of Egypt's military security services in the mid-1960s.[3] He also served as the office manager of Field Marshal Abdul Hakim Amer under Gamal Abdel Nasser's presidency.[4] Badran was one of the top aides of Amer.[5] The Muslim Brotherhood accused him and Amer of responsibility for the torture of Brotherhood leaders who had been arrested due to their alleged plans to assassinate Nasser in 1965.[6][7]

Badran was appointed minister of defence in Fall 1966, a few months before the June 1967 Six-Day War, replacing Abdel Wahab Al Bishri in the post.[1][8] Amer had supported Badran's appointment.[9] Badran was also named as the chief of Nasser's cabinet the same year.[10] On 25 May 1967, Badran visited Moscow and met senior Soviet officials, including then-prime minister Alexei Kosygin, to secure their support regarding a perceived Israeli threat.[5] Badran resigned from office during the unsuccessful Six-Day War, and was replaced as defence minister by Amin Howeidi.[11]

Conviction

Badran along with other senior officials, including Amer, was detained on 25 August 1967 on charges of plotting against Nasser.[12] However, they were tried for their roles during the six day war in 1967, including for Badran charges of torturing members of the Muslim Brotherhood.[8][13] Badran appeared in court in two separate trials.[8] He and Salah Nasr, former chief of intelligence and also part of Amer's faction, were convicted and sentenced to hard labour due to their roles in the defeat.[14]

Following his release from prison by president Anwar Sadat on 23 May 1974, Badran left Egypt and went to live in London.[15] Badran published part of his memoirs in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa in 2014.[13]

Personal life

Badran married his first wife, Muna Rushdie, on 7 June 1962. The couple had one daughter named Hiba; they divorced in January 1989 by a court decision, as he had been absent for three years. Rushdie worked at The American University in Cairo.[15] In the 1970s he married a British woman, with whom he had three children. Badran lived with his family in "self-imposed exile" in the United Kingdom, though one of his children moved to Saudi Arabia and another to the United States.[13]

On 28 November 2020, Badran died in the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust; however, he had asked to be buried in Egypt.[13]

References
  1. Panayiotis J. Vatikiotis (1978). Nasser and His Generation. Croom Helm. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-85664-433-7.
  2. "رحيل شمس بدران.. آخر وزراء جمهورية ما وراء الشمس". Al Jazeera (in Arabic). 1 December 2020.
  3. Gilles Kepel (1985). Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharaoh. University of California Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-520-05687-9.
  4. Abdou Mubasher (7–13 June 2007). "The road to Naksa". Al Ahram Weekly. 848. Archived from the original on 25 March 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  5. Richard Bordeaux Parker (1996). The Six-Day War: A Retrospective. University Press of Florida. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-8130-1383-1. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  6. "Your torture still shows on our bodies, Brothers tell Nasser's defense minister". Almasry Alyoum. 3 July 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  7. John Sainsbury (2 August 2013). "Army-Muslim Brotherhood feud has dire consequences for Egypt's future". The Star. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  8. Hamied Ansari (1986). Egypt: The Stalled Society. SUNY Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-88706-183-7.
  9. "Egypt-Internal Relations". Mongabay. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  10. Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid Marsot (29 March 2007). A History of Egypt: From the Arab Conquest to the Present. Cambridge University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-521-87717-6. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  11. "Nasser picks new aide". Eugene Register Guard. AP. 21 July 1967. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  12. "Ex-Egyptian vice president arrested". The Evening Independent. 4 September 1967. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  13. "وفاة وزير الحربية المصري الأسبق شمس بدران في لندن". Independent (in Arabic). 1 December 2020.
  14. Michael C. Desch (6 March 2008). Power and Military Effectiveness: The Fallacy of Democratic Triumphalism. JHU Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-8018-8801-4.
  15. Mustafa el Fiqi (25 September 2008). "Shams Badran". Almasry Alyoum. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
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