When confronted with these accusations he denied the charges and blamed Hüseyin Bey, the colonel of the 1st Cavalry Regiment, instead. Moreover, he attempted to bribe some of the soldiers and NCOs of his brigade to witness in his favor during the court martial and when they betrayed him he spat in their faces in front of the tribunal. Having proved all the charges against him, namely, violating military rules regarding his location during battle, giving a false account about it to the tribunal, and finally insulting his soldiers and NCOs, Ahmed Bey was only demoted one rank to the rank of miralay (colonel), "as a punishment for him and a deterrent to his peers (kindisi tedip ve akranlarınıs terhip olmak)" although the same document says that according to military law he was supposed to be executed.

XREF: Connects to the earlier highlights about Egyptian military law's taut crime-punishment calibration (loc 628, 699, 704). Here, actual application diverges sharply from the code — the ta� laws promised execution but delivered a one-rank demotion for a senior officer, showing law's force was class-stratified. Pays off: "Military codes precisely calibrated offenses to their exact punishments."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 906