Youssef Seddik (Arabic:يوسف صديق, often speltYusuf Sadik orYusef el-Sadiq) (January 3, 1910 – March 31, 1975)[1][2] was an Egyptian military figure and politician. He is noted for his role in launching the first military procedures in theEgyptian Revolution of 1952.[3]
Seddik graduated from Military Academy in 1933.[4] He was active in the1948 Palestine War.[3] He joined the ranks of the undergroundFree Officers Movement in 1951, becoming its most senior member afterMuhammad Naguib, and was a lieutenant-colonel of the infantry by 1952. Seddik had been a member of aCommunist organisation, theDemocratic Movement for National Liberation (DMNL), when the Free Officers requested his membership.[5]
On July 23, 1952 was the first to take army action at the beginning of the coup which removedKing Farouk and the monarchy from power. He had swiftly moved his forces to occupy the Egyptian Army Headquarters at Kobri al-Qubba an hour before the appointed time. Some attribute this to a glitch in communication. The Minister of War at the time, Haydar Pasha, knew of the Free Officers' plans and had Seddik not set out with his motorized columns from the Hikestep Army Camp prior to the scheduled time of the coup, the minister would have been able thwart their actions.[5]
The leaders of the Free Officers decided to make him a member of theEgyptian Revolutionary Command Council (RCC)—the ruling body that ruled Egypt in the aftermath of the coup—in recognition of his role in the revolution's success. However, Seddik quickly began expressing opposition to many of the RCC's decisions, especially the execution of two Communist workers who incited strikes in factories inKafr el-Dawwar in August 1952. According to Ahmad Hamrous, a Free Officer himself, Seddik said, "any chance I ever had of cooperating with them became impossible. I could not possibly allow myself to go down in history as someone who had remained a member of a Council that abolished civil liberties, sentenced workers to death and placed patriots in jail."[5]
He resigned from the Revolution Command Council in February 1953 and exiled inSwitzerland, disappearing from public life.[6] Seddik was arrested in August 1953 when he secretly returned to Egypt.[6] He was placed under house arrest for a few months, and when he was freed he attempted to make an alliance with President Mohamed Naguib which was not materialized.[6] Following the removal of Naguib, Seddik was arrested and detained in a military prison for one year.[6] Next he and his wife were put under house arrest for two years.[6]
In a 1962 speech, Nasser acknowledged the Free Officers' debt to Seddik, saying that without his action "all our efforts would have come to nothing."[5]
Egyptian PresidentAnwar Sadat gave Seddik a state pension when he came to power in 1970 and also sent him for medical treatment inMoscow. When Seddik died in 1975, he was given a full military funeral.[5]
Abul-Fath, A.,L'affaire Nasser, Plon, 1962,University of Michigan
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