Two charged over assassination of Egyptian diplomat in Geneva three decades ago

Alaa El Din Nazmi, 42, was shot six times with a semi-automatic pistol in an underground car park in 1995

Switzerland's Federal Prosecutor General Carla del Ponte, centre, at the apartment building in which Nazmi was gunned down on November 13, 1995 in Geneva. The case ran cold until a recent DNA breakthrShow more

New evidence has led police in Switzerland to charge two people in connection with the assassination of an Egyptian diplomat outside his luxury property in Geneva almost three decades ago.

Alaa El Din Nazmi, 42, was shot six times with a semi-automatic pistol after he parked his car in the underground car park at his apartment in the Petit-Saconnex district in November 1995. At the time it was also home to many officials from the UN's European headquarters.

On Friday, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland announced a DNA breakthrough and international police operation had finally led them to charge a 54-year-old Ivorian-Italian dual citizen and a 49-year-old Swiss-Italian dual citizen in connection with the murder.

It had been alleged Nazmi had been secretly monitoring Muslim Brotherhood extremists at the time.

The married father was the deputy head of the Egyptian mission’s trade office in Geneva and was tasked with negotiating with members of the World Trade Organisation.

Following his death, reports suggested Nazmi had also been working to track down members of Egyptian Islamist armed groups in Europe who had sworn to overthrow Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Two days after his death, a group describing themselves as the Gemaa Al Adela Al Alamiya – the International Justice Group – claimed that his real job was to hunt Muslim activists on behalf of the Egyptian government.

Mr Nazmi had joined the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in 1976 as a commercial attache and had only been appointed commercial counsellor in Geneva a year before his death.

He was previously stationed at Egypt's embassy in Washington and at its consulate in Hamburg.

Egypt's former ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Mounir Zahran, said at the time that he could not rule out that the diplomat had been killed for “political reasons”.

“On 13 November 1995, the then deputy head of the Egyptian mission’s trade office in Geneva, a 42-year-old Egyptian citizen, was killed with six shots from a semi-automatic pistol in the underground garage of his apartment building in Geneva,” the OAG said on Friday.

“The perpetrators fled, leaving behind a pistol silencer at the scene. It was a handmade device made from foam from car headrests held together with adhesive tape.”

The victim's briefcase and wallet were stolen.

Interpol could not find fingerprint or DNA matches to gun

Despite a fingerprint from the gun being recovered and DNA, police were unable to identify those responsible and four years later the investigation was suspended.

“As the authority responsible for prosecuting offences against diplomatically protected persons, the OAG immediately opened criminal proceedings against persons unknown on suspicion of intentional homicide and, secondarily, on suspicion of murder,” it said.

“The Federal Criminal Police conducted extensive investigations until 2009, especially also regarding a fingerprint secured on the silencer. The Federal Criminal Police then fed the fingerprint into the national Automated Fingerprint Identification System and forwarded it to 68 countries for comparison via Interpol. However, no matches were found in the respective databases.”

In 2004 DNA traces of one woman and three men were found on the silencer and sent to Interpol but they also yielded no results at the time.

Investigation reopened after cold case breakthrough

But in 2018, new findings led Swiss authorities to reopen the case.

It came after a new advanced fingerprint system, which was launched in 2016, which was able to draw on the higher match rates and it generated a match between the fingerprint trace on the silencer and a fingerprint record sheet created in Geneva in 2011, belonging to the 54-year-old Ivorian-Italian dual citizen presently charged in the matter.

The 54-year-old, who has not been named, was residing in France.

The authorities then got a DNA hit from the silencer allegedly matching a 49-year-old female Swiss-Italian dual national resident in Geneva.

“In this context, the OAG charged the 54-year-old male suspect with murder. He is accused of deliberately killing the then 42-year-old deputy head of the Egyptian mission’s trade office in Geneva with six shots, allegedly acting particularly ruthlessly,” the OAG said.

“According to the indictment, he and his female co-accused produced the silencer themselves before the crime.”

He was arrested in October 2018 and was held in pretrial detention until May 2020 when he was released following a decision by the Federal Supreme Court in connection with an appeal for release from custody that he had submitted.

In December 2021, he was arrested again on suspicion of rape and the OAG took over the case and indicted him for Nazmi's murder.

It has now also charged the 49-year-old female Swiss-Italian dual national with complicity in murder. She is accused of having made the silencer used for the offence, together with the 54-year-old male suspect.

The OAG is now filing charges with the Federal Criminal Court.

“The judicial police investigations were conducted as part of a national, but also an intensive international co-operation,” it said.

“Fedpol’s Federal Criminal Police evaluated the forensic evidence and analysed extensive digital data on behalf of the OAG using various forensic services and state-of-the-art technology. In addition, several dozen interviews were conducted as part of the criminal proceedings.

“The OAG will announce its criminal complaints at the main hearing before the Federal Criminal Court. The presumption of innocence applies until a final judgment has been passed.”