Arrest by Night

Long after taps one night last week, the Egyptian Army's GHQ in Abbasiya was ablaze with lights. Outside the two-story building, steel-helmeted troops cradled their automatic rifles while inside, Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser met with members of the Revolutionary Command Council in an emergency session. Nasser was convinced that civilian and army enemies were plotting to overthrow the regime in a May Day uprising.

While Nasser outlined his plans to his fellow officers, jeeploads of uniformed military policemen fanned out into Cairo to nab the suspects before they had a chance to be tipped off. By daybreak twelve junior army officers and 40 civilians-Communists, Socialists and Wafdists-were behind bars. Some were charged with inciting student, and labor organizations to riot, others with inciting the army to insurrection.

Most of the officers arrested had been key backers of Naguib in his unsuccessful bid to dispute Nasser's power (TIME, April 5). Nasser had then promised no reprisals against them, but now declared that they had violated their pledge not to intrigue. Nasser's supporters boasted that the "last pocket of resistance" had been wiped out. "This time they will face court-martial, and there will be no pardon," said Nasser's aide. "The punishments are going to be very severe." With his opposition thus condemned before trial, Egypt's 36-year-old strong man seemed to be having things his own way.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.