Zaki Badr ( ar, زكي بدر; 28 February 1926 – 2 April 1997) was an Egyptian major general and the former interior minister of Egypt who served in the post from 1986 to 1990 in the Sedki Cabinet. Badr had a confrontational approach during his term.

Early life and education

Badr was born in the Minya province of the southern Egypt on 28 February 1926. He graduated from the police academy in 1946.

Career

Badr began his career as a police officer in 1947. He served as the governor of

Asyut AsyutAlso spelled ''Assiout'' or ''Assiut'' ( ar, أسيوط ' , from ' ) is the capital of the modern Asyut Governorate in Egypt. It was built close to the ancient city of the same name, which is situated nearby. The modern city is located at , ...

in the

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

. He also served in the ministry of interior during the term of

Nabawi Ismail Nabawi İsmail (1925 – 15 June 2009) was one of the interior ministers of Egypt who was in office when Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Therefore, he is the last interior minister of Sadat. Early life and education Ismail was born in Al Darb ...

and was in charge of the central region of Minya. He was the key man in the Egyptian government's struggle against the underground extremists cells. He took strong measures on Asyut when extremists rioted in the city after the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

of Anwar Sadat in October 1981.

Minister of Interior

Badr was appointed interior minister on 27 February 1986, replacing

Ahmed Rushdi ), Rushdi Sahab ( ur, ) , birth_date = , birth_place =Hyderabad Deccan, British India , death_date = , death_place = Karachi, Pakistan , origin = Pakistani , instrument = Vocalist , genre = , ...

in the post. Shortly after his appointment Badr fired or transferred hundreds of security officials from March to August 1986. He was the most disliked man in the cabinet due to his hardliner approach against Islamic "fundamentalist" movements. He confronted nearly all groups in the society in order to achieve the regime's goal of eliminating Islamist militant entities in Egypt. Badr also toughly struggled against drug trafficking, black market currency speculation and extremism during his term. On the other hand, human rights activists in Egypt criticized him for the violations of civil liberties, since his brutal policies were experienced everywhere in the country, including the universities. Badr ordered the arrest for the relatives of the fugitive Islamic Group leaders. These people were tortured at Ain Shams police station and the state security intelligence department in Lazughli. This event was one of the triggers of the assassination attempt against Badr in 1989. However, Badr was a frequent and respectful guest at gatherings of

Copts Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...

who supported his iron fist. Badr was sacked by the President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...

on 12 January 1990 and replaced by

Abdul Halim Moussa Abdul Halim Moussa ( ar, عبد الحليم موسى; c. 1930 – 2003) was an Egyptian police major general and interior minister who was in office from 1990 to 1993. Early life and education Moussa was born around 1930. He graduated from the ...

in the post. No explanation was given for the dismissal of Badr. However, a scandal he had been involved in was the reason for his removal. On the other hand, Najib Ghadbian regards Badr's removal as one of three steps towards democracy in Egypt occurred in 1990.

Assassination attempt

During his term as interior minister on 16 December 1989, Badr became the target of an assassination attempt when a Suzuki pickup truck loaded with gunpowder exploded in a Cairo suburb seconds before his motorcade was to pass. He survived the attack, and nobody was hurt in the blast. The driver of the truck, a 24-year-old medical student named Youssef Hasan Mahmoud, was arrested while trying to escape the scene. The perpetrators were the members of the Islamic Group whose relatives had been arrested and tortured earlier, including

Ayman Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with a ...

Controversy

When he was interior minister, Badr referred to Islamist extremists as "mad dogs, with all respect to dogs." In 1994, Badr and his successor as interior minister Abdul Halim Moussa accused each other of corruption and wrongdoing.

Personal life and death

Badr was married and had two sons. One of his sons, Ahmad Zaki, was appointed minister of education by Hosni Mubarak in 2010. His family founded a charitable foundation, the Zaki Badr Foundation, in the United States. Badr died at a hospital in the United States on 2 April 1997.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badr, Zaki 20th-century Egyptian politicians 1926 births 1997 deaths Egyptian generals Interior Ministers of Egypt Major generals Survivors of terrorist attacks