رسالة إلى الشرطة والشعب

من هنا ورايح ماحدش يتقبض عليه من غير إذن نيابة، يا إما نموت كلنا زي خالد سعيد بقى

Khaled Said Graffiti Sprayed on the Ministry of Interior

On the first anniversary of the murder of Khaled Said, Egypt commemorated it uniquely. This time last year was a time of anguish and anger for all those who saw Khaled's photos and knew the details of his death. This year, and although his murderers are yet to be indicted (or released!) on the 30th of June, the feelings of anger have to some extent turned to hope and determination after the Khaled Said Facebook Page helped mobilised for the revolution.

Sadly, there have been two cases of torture to death after the revolution, and others of policemen shooting detainees despite not particularly being in a threatening situation. Just a show of power, and perhaps vengeance. That's why activists called for a protest in front of the Ministry of Interior at the same time that Wael Ghonim called for the usual silent stands downtown all over Egypt.

The police cordoned off two intersecting streets and at the beginning their numbers were bigger than us. Soon the numbers started to increase and it got interesting when some brilliant Egyptian Banksy sprayed a Khaled Said graffiti in front of the Ministry.

When one graffito passed peacefully, the artist was encouraged to spray it over and over till it filled the facing wall. Dying for some water, I briefly left, and soon heard whistling and cheering sounds. I flew back to find the Khaled Said graffiti sprayed in red ON THE MAIN GATE!

I couldn't help crying, it was like his blood has returned to the ministry to remind them of their crime, though they had probably not forgotten it for a year every second of their lives. Neither did or will we.

سيبوا الشهداء يتهنوا في تربتهم

قطع لسان اللي يقول نص كلمة على الشهداء ... النهاردة نزل خبر تحويل أوراق أمين شرطة هربان للمفتي لاتهامه بقتل عشرين متظاهر في الزاوية الحمرا وإصابة 15 تانيين، اتفرجوا بقى على التعليقات.

قال إيه اللي بيهجموا على الأقسام بلطجية مش شهداء. أولاً بالنسبة للزاوية الحمرا إنتوا عرفتوا منين إنهم بلطجية؟ مش دول موتى؟ بتتكلموا عليهم ليه؟ منجمين حضراتكوا عشان تعرفوا إنهم كانوا بيهاجموا القسم؟ يعني أنا أول مرة اسمع الكلام ده كان من ظابط شرطة على الفيسبوك فقلت عادي مخه على قده، والعيسوي قال إنهم باغين باين، قال يعني ماعندوش بدل رقص وجلادين وقتالين قتلة في وزارته لحد هذه اللحظة.

خير بقى ... الكلام الوسخ هيبدأ يطلع على الشهداء كمان؟ هاتكرروا اسطوانة خالد سعيد اللي في الآخر ساعد في قيام الثورة؟ كل شهيد دمه أطهر من دمكوا ودم جدودكوا وجدود جدودكوا من الألف إلى الياء ياللي بتتكلم عليه من غير ما تعرفه ولا تعرف مات إزاي. يعني ده منظر بلطجية يا ظلمة؟

مريم مكرم نظير، كانت واقفة جنب قسم الزاوية الحمرا بتصور المجزرة اللي بتحصل، استشهدت برصاصة في الراس

انتوا نسيتوا تقرير لجنة تقصي الحقائق؟

المستشار بيقول إيه؟ بيقول الظباط اللي استشدوا استشهدوا على إيد بلطجية مش ثوار، وفي فرق بين واحد شاء حظه العثر إنه يبقى أمين الشرطة بتاع منطقته جزار زي مريم وبين ناس رايحة تتهجم على القسم قاصدين، وحتى في الحالة دي القانون بيقول يضربوا على الرجل، مش على الراس. بلاش حاجتنا للأمان تخلينا نتوحش ونقول إيه يعني بلطجية وماتوا.

والمجازر دي اتكررت حوالين اقسام الزاوية الحمرا والدرب الأحمر وبني سويف والوادي الجديد والنهضة وحدائق القبة وعين شمس وشبرا والمطرية وإمبابة ودار السلام (المعادي)، طلعوا يقتلوا في كل الناس بدون اي تمييز ولا رحمة، وقتلوا ناس ماكانوش شايلين عصيان حتى.

إلهي تنتص في أمين شرطة معاه مسدس طائش ياللي بتهاجم ناس أحياء عند ربهم ومايقدروش يدافعوا عن نفسهم، قادر يا كريم.

يوم 26 ابريل انزلوا مع أهالي الشهداء

يوم الثلاثاء 26 إبريل أول جلسة في محاكمة العادلي ومساعديه في تهمة قتل المتظاهرين ... غالباً هتبقى في محكمة جنايات القاهرة في التجمع الخامس، أرجوكوا ماتسيبوش أهالي الشهداء ينزلوا لوحدهم، كان ممكن نموت بدالهم أو معاهم، عشان كده لازم نساندهم

16 و24 أبريل محاكمة الظباط بتهمة قتل المتظاهرين

فضوا نفسكوا وافتكروا الأيام دي يوم 16 إبريل أول جلسات محاكمة مدير أمن اسكندرية ومساعديه و24 إبريل أول جلسات محاكمة العادلي وعصابته، إن شاء الله هاننزل أولاً تضامناً مع أهالي الشهداء ثانياً عشان نوضح لناس كده فاكرينا هدينا وشفنا شغلنا إننا ماهديناش ومش هننسى ومش هنسيب حق الشهداء وهنفضل ورا البلد دي لحد ما تنضف

إن شاء الله

وغالباً إن شاء الله صفحة خالد سعيد هاتعمل إعلان قبلها

Scenes from the Egyptian Revolution; a Background

To an outsider it may seem puzzling why a revolution started now in Egypt, but as a keen observer I could see it coming all along, perhaps at a different timing.

Don't get me wrong though, the timing was perfect. Talk about accumulations ... tens of years of accumulations. If you take police brutality as one reason for protests, it has been practiced systematically ever since 1952 against political opponents, though in recent years it has also crushed to death innocent people, even those who have not been accused of any crime. Several high profile cases against policemen have been filed. Still, the source of the problem, the culture of state-induced violence and impunity as well as the emergency law imposed since Mubarak assumed power (not a coincidence), remains a culprit towards dignity for Egyptians.

Let's focus on the last five years. Hundreds of protests, sit-ins and marches were organised by thousands for various political and economic reasons. Because Mubarak and his regime do not have a hint of respect or care for "their" people, they dealt with most of these protests with violence alone instead of diplomacy or any concrete steps towards development. Inevitably this attitude has created vendetta among tens of thousands, mainly downtrodden workers and government employees.

Then the Khaled Said tragedy began. Within a few hours, Facebook pages were created in his memory. At the same time, various political movements organised marches and protests calling for punishing his killers. Through time, the page, created by anonymous, started to shed more light on similar abuses and other regime failures. It has been a haven of debates and most of its fans bitterly criticised this regime. Have you noticed the momentum? Are you watching the snowball rolling? A man gets killed at the hands of policemen, thousands know and are angered, more people get killed the same way, fuelling more anger and frustration, the emergency law which is accused of letting loose policemen on innocent people does not get cancelled still.

A few months after Khaled Said, thousands of kilometres away, a vegetables vendour gets his cart confiscated and a policewoman slaps him when he objects. Hurt and frustrated, he sets himself ablaze, dying a few days later. The self-immolation sparks ever-growing protests calling for basic human rights; bread, dignity, social justice, freedom. No amount of government promises, then sniper shootings and police brutality could quell them. Almost a month later a regime topples and a president flees. This is the Tunisian Revolution.

The Egyptians watched the fall of a repressive regime wistfully. They congratulated the brave Tunisian people and showed solidarity. The Egyptians saw a live and practical example of how to get rid of dictatorship. And it wasn't in the Western "brave new world", but in a country which shares the same language, history, culture and Arab identity. Now was the time to emulate them and let the domino effect work.

Again, within a few hours, the anonymous Khaled Said Facebook page creator called for a "revolution of anger". He succeeded at gathering thousands in "silent protests" before, but this was the first time he actually called upon people to GET ANGRY. This day was the 25th of January, strategically on the government-chosen Police Day, only 11 days after Tunisia's dictator fled. No one expected the response to be very huge. "When you want to slap someone, do you tell him beforehand or do you do it suddenly?" a shop vendour remarked. Luckily, everyone was proven wrong.

In a striking real "remake" of V for Vendetta, then, this anonymous V has been addressing thousands of people via Facebook for months on their rights and sharing with them dreams of prosperity and dignity. Blend all of the effects you may and you can now find the mouth-watering aroma of the revolution. The butterfly effect, the domino effect, the snowball effect.

At one point I said to myself, if Khaled Said hadn't been killed, and his horrific postmortem photos hadn't been published, who knows, maybe this revolution wouldn't be happening. How insane, how ironic, how delicious could it get?

Egypt’s Emergency Law Strikes Again! - Marwa Rakha

Egypt’s Emergency Law Strikes Again! - Marwa Rakha

Fucking disgusting!

Khaled Said Trial Update

Today Sally Sami tweeted live from the third session of the trial of Khaled Said's murderers. Eight witnesses gave their testimonies, including Amaal, wife of the building porter where Khaled was beaten to death, a crucial witness, Khaled's brother and two friends of his. One of the friends admitted that he used to smoke weed and other drugs with Khaled, whereas the other friend who was there when Khaled died confirmed that said suspects beat him to death.

There has been a focus, or so I noticed, on the claim that Khaled was an addict, and that the puzzling story of Khaled swallowing a packet of drugs may be true. Sadly, this is yet another indication that the policemen will recieve a light sentence, if any at all, because they killed a "drug addict". Judges may actually think it is acceptable for police forces to crack open a "junkie's" jaw. One more paradigm that Egyptains have just GOT TO do away with, that addicts are bloody criminals who deserve to die. Add mental health patients, religious minorities, girls in tight jeans, and you know Egypt is on its way to become a Nazi nation.

Meanwhile pro-police protesters continued their farcical protests outside the court, yelling at witnesses "You Jews!", and telling Khaled's family members they're dogs.

The three elements seem to complete the farce that has become Egypt, the pro-police protesters, the police and the judges. The trial was adjourned to 26th of November.

Updates from Egypt

Allow me to be too lazy to write separate posts about each of the important incidents that have taken place in the land of wonders.

The highly anticipated Tuesday 21st of September, Abdin square, or rather a dumpster-turned protest scene. The People's Democratic Movement for Change (Hashd), a leftist movement, called for this protest against the expected presidential-succesion in Egypt. News spread that whoever ventured close to the palace was immediately arrested. So a couple hundred of honest people decided to stand on said dumpster and started chanting anyway. Of course, every now and then protesters were attacked. The most horrifying moment was, though, when we suddenly found a march of fellow-protesters coming toward us. Due to my length, I don't know what happened. But suddenly the whole 200 ppl, backed by 2000 soldiers, were rushing towards me, and I was jolted out of the security cordon. A few tense minutes passed before security forces rearranged themselves and the cordon was large enough to include both groups.

I estimate the protesters to have been around 400 to 500, but it is not only about the numbers. Photos of Gamal Mubarak's photos burning were widely circulated and chants accusing Mubarak senior (oh, man. we actually have to start telling them apart) of trading Jerusalem for his son were shouted. It is the effect of the photos and videos posted that also carries defiance. We do not want to be ruled by Mubarak junior. We do not want to have sham elections no more. We do not want to be ruled by a bunch of businessmen who eat up most of Egypt's wealth and leave the bones for the workers. Or, for that matter, a bunch of businessmen who are able to drown a thousand and thirty four people and manage to flee the country, never to be held accountable. Gamal Mubarak's rule only means more unfair distribution of wealth, more thuggery, more unsaftey, more autocracy, more people dying of torture or negligence. We are already rolling down a steep hill, and Gamal Mubarak will be our rock bottom.

September 22nd, October Courthouse. Judges order the policemen, whom Shadi Maged accuses of torturing him, to be arrested. Reminder: I did assert that this is the land of wonders. So this court order may or may not mean that they're in jail now.

September 25th, second trial of the murderers of Khaled Said. Same silly attempt to intimitade pro-justice protesters. Police gathered a number of thugs, or informers, or random ppl who were bribed to protest for the police. Trial was adjourned to the 23rd of October.
I cannot even imagine how his family must be feeling now. Always hanging their hope on justice, only for justice to be deferred, or hushed, or obliterated.

Egyptian Police on Trial for Torture, Again

The "usual" item of news is, a group of policemen decided to randomly stop a young man called Shadi Maged in the street and check his IDs. They told him to accompany them to the police station, which he refused, simply because he was not accused of any crime. Of course they started hitting him and kidnapped him to the station, where he was repeatedly beaten and abused for ten whole days. He would pass out under torture, only to come about and be tortured again. He told the prosecutors what happened, but even this did not save him. The policemen falsely accused him of theft and drug possession. After months of ordeal, threats and detaining him with his wife and toddler for four days, he was finally released.

The unusual item of news is, Shadi refused to let the abuses go unquestioned. He identified the names of three high-ranking policemen who were involved in his torture and decided to file a lawsuit against them. The first session was on September 1st, and it was adjourned to the 22nd of the same month.
This means that Egyptian police will witness quite an embarassing week this month. On the same week, precisely on the 25th of September, the second session in the high-profile case of the murder of Khaled Said takes place.

I'd like to point to a detail that may seem secondary. In the case of Khaled Said, the policemen behind bars until now are low-ranking policemen whom witnesses saw beat Khaled to death. The high-ranking policeman, Ahmad Othman, who reportedly ordered the attack, somehow avoided being accused. He gave the prosecution a silly alibi of being on a vacation the night Khaled died, as if he could not order the killing by mobile phone. In the case of Shadi, however, all of the defendants are high-ranking policemen, which may make it more difficult to make them pay for forever traumatising an innocent man.

Both judges and policemen are elitist. In recent years, poor or middle class Egyptians have been the overwhelming majority of targets of torture and abuse. Judges pass more severe sentences against poor people. For instance, a boatman received a ten year sentence when his crumbling boat capsised and killed a bunch of girls, whereas powerful businessman Mamdouh Ismail recieved a fleeting 7 years when one thousand and thirty four people died in the February 2006 Ferry disaster, a sentence he will not even do, having easily escaped soon after the disaster. Similarly, policemen most probably mistreat people from the working class or underprivilidged people. I cannot imagine Hisham Talaat Mustafa being mistreated at any point during his detention.

This is why I implore upon everyone reading this post to blog about Shadi's case, link to this post on your twitter and or Facebook accounts or to the original story in Arabic, attend the second session, do something. Anything. This case has got to be known, for visbility is one way of attaining power.

إفتح يا سمسم باب التعذيب في مصر

من ساعة قضية خالد سعيد ما اتعرفت وآلاف شاركوا في الاحتجاج ضد بلطجة الداخلية، صفحة كلنا خالد سعيد وأنا اسمي خالد سعيد على الفيسبوك عمالين يقلبوا القديم على الجديد من جرائم النظام المصري وظهر فيديوهات ووقائع تعذيب ماكانتش معروفة أو اتعرفت في حدود المدونات واتنست. مش بس كده مستخدمي فيسبوك اللي مش نشطاء كمان بدءوا ينشروا فيديوهات فيها جرائم ترويع ارتكبها النظام المصري في الكام سنة اللي فاتوا مافرقش فيها بين رجل عجوز وسيدات وأطفال، اللينك ده فيديو لقيته امبارح وأول مرة أشوفه ماعرفش الكلام ده كان إمتى، واضح فيه قوات الأمن بتستعين بمئات البلطجية ماسكين عصيان وبيضربوا راجل عجوز لحد ما وقعهوه على الأرض وكسروا عربية راجل تاني حاول يتدخل.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=107258555995478

Khaled Said's Killers Trial Adjourned

The details of today's session are well and objectively detailed here, but I can't be objective about it.
As noted in this post, the murderers should face more severe charges, I do not know who is responsible for this, but it's probably the prosecution. Thankfully, Khaled Said family's lawyers asked the charges to be changed to premeditated murder, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will. I mean, what fucking bullshit is this? Someone has died here, someone has been beaten for a tortuous twenty minutes and smeared after his death, and in return his killers, IF convicted, may face only three years?? One reason why many Egyptians are frustrated from their lifelong government is that not only does the government purposefully kill and/or starves them, but the judicial system is not always reliable, because it belings to, uhm, the government!

وقفة احتجاجية في ذكرى أربعين خالد سعيد

تقديم المخبرين للمحاكمة مش كفاية، وعشرات المظاهرات شارك فيها آلاف مش كفاية، الوقفات مستمرة طالما أسباب الظلم موجودة

الفيديوهات هنا والصور هنا

Khaled Said's Murderers Detained

Update: So it's official, Khaled Said's killers will go to trial.

---------------------------

Alexandria prosecution ordered today Khaled Said's killers to be detained. Investigations will probably take long, but in any case you wouldn't want to set high expectations. They were charged with "illegal detainment" (!) and "the use of excessive force" (!!), instead of beating to death, or even premeditated murder. The good thing is the uproar which followed the case, probably one of the reasons it didn't sink into oblivion.
More to come as soon as news is available.

Police Brutality in Beheira

In light of the murder of Khaled Said, independent daily newspaper Al-Shorouk is highlighting more and more examples of alarming abuses committed by the Egyptian police, here is a summary of another story:
Al-Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture Victims published the outcomes of the fact-finding committee investigating the continuing abuses committed by security forces against El-Beheira farmers. A senior State Security officer bought their land from someone who doesn't own it, and insisted that his contract is authentic even though the farmers have authentic contracts themselves.
The farmers have been continuously terrorised since the beginning of this month. The first attack was on the 7th of June at 4 am. Armed policemen came upon the Shehab family homes, beat up their women and terrorised the whole village in an attempt to force them to give up their land.
A number of women were detained including Ilham Riad, wife of Gaber Shehab. She reports being beaten up and was hospitalised in Damanhour Hospital. She is currently suffering haemorrhage dangerous enough to make her lose her baby.
Twenty four hours later, another force trespassed the farmers' land and destroyed the corn fields in order to make it difficult for the prosecution to examine it and prove that it belongs to the farmers. The farmers are also accusing a member of parliament of conspiring with the police to destroy and steal their land, and that he previously stole a huge piece of land and sold it to the same SS officer.
The police officers performed their third raid at noon on the same day; 8th of June. They smashed the farmers' irrigators to push them further more.
Farmers bought this land in 2000, and the SS officer bought it "again" from a different contractor in 2009 and has been abusing his position and power since then to force them to give up their land.

View original (Arabic)

In Support of Victims of Torture, Egypt Stands Strong

It will take a long time to process the public scene in Egypt yesterday. Whereas it is true that protests are no longer novel events in Egypt and that the country has been rife with protests for many reasons ranging from political reform to pay rise or even an unfair manager taking over a public hospital, rarely before have hundreds, perhaps thousands of Egyptians decided to publicly grief for the same reason. And it is no trivial reason such as losing World Cup qualifications; to protest brutal murder of Khaled Said at the hands of the police, and torture victims in general.

The Alexandria protests in which public figures such As ElBaradei, Noor and Sabbahi participated (or actually called for, can't tell) were massive. The location of assembly, Sidi Gaber, had been turned into a closed military area. Thousands of riot police were present and even tanks! Now, the Ministry of Interior knows quite well none of the protestors is armed with a knife, let alone machine guns. So the scene of tanks was quite bizarre as well as funny, and some protestors reportedly responded by taking pictures beside tanks and waving the victory sign. A scene from the occupied Palestinian land.

What I want to focus on, however, are the ensuing silent protests which took place in at least eight different cities. The protests have been announced online, particularly on Facebook. It was not one event planned by a certain movement or person. They were multiple events, in multiple places created by a Facebook page for Khaled Said. No one knows the administrator of the page. He or she just asked participants to silently protest in the downtowns of the cities wearing black. The "rules" also included not chanting or holding banners. And so they did, brilliantly organic they were. The young people particpating wanted to protest, but didn't want to get into scuffles or get detained. Not that all people who are unjustly detained are protestors, but so it goes. These revealing protests come after a long time of believing that no matter what we do, no one will listen, nothing will change. But blimey I can see change with my own two eyes seeing yesterday's protests. The Egyptian regime has generated a stubborn generation who swore to stand up against injustice, clearly realising that you do not have to be a political activist to be tortured. And since they didn't know the person calling for the protest, they don't always need a leader. All they need is to witness injustice. The number of Egyptians who are willing to sacrifice their personal safety is increasing, and one reason for this is, again, realising that you are not safe if you "walk next to the wall" as we say. Their act in this context may I say is an act of self-preservation. The regime has been pushing too hard, impoverishing us and slamming us if we as much as utter a moan of pain. They should have seen this coming.

Whereas this public outcry may not necessarily push towards a fair sentence for Khaled's murderers and a change of this system of torture all in all, especially given last Wednesday's phony autopsy report, it signals again a change of public attitude towards regime crimes. You wouldn't hear of a similar reaction 10 or 15 years back, when all our sources of information was government-controlled. But now torture is difficult to hide, and in this incident in particular Khaled's broken skull is screaming at us to stand strong against it.

Protests Against Torture All Over Egypt

The scene today in Alexandria, Cairo, Damietta, Port Said, Munufiya, Assiout, Menya, Tanta, Mansoura, Fayoum is exhilirating. I will let the photos I have stolen from all over twitter and facebook speak for themselves. One last thing though: there IS hope for Egypt!

Autopsy Report of Khaled Said's Body

The autopsy report of Khaled Said's body came out today, a load of crap as expected. It claims, again, that he died of asphyxia after swallowing a cannabis "cigarette". It adds that the trauma to the skull has been caused by beating or hitting the head against a hard surface, but that it is not the cause of death(!!!)
Bloggers who have been following the case are beyond enraged.
There is still a silent protest next Friday, and probably more protests will break out if the Ministry of Interior and its allies in the field of forensic medicine try to close the case.

Egyptians Silently Protest the Murder of Khaled Said

It is a scene I have personally never witnessed before following the myriad of catastrophes that befell Egyptians. Answering a call on Facebook to organise silent protests in Cairo and Alexandria following the gruesome murder of Alexandrian Khaled Said at the hands of policemen, hundreds have taken to the streets silently, dressed in black. They did not necessarily know each other and were mostly non-activists. This is another sign of the spirit of discontent rising in Egypt for many reasons, the last of which was police brutality. It is proof that discontent is not voiced by "a few, outlaw activists" as our government prefers to refer to them, but by virtually everyone in this country ruled by Mubarak and his consort.

The Murder of Khaled Said: Egypt's Waking Nightmare

During the late hours of Sunday the 6th of June, two police informers stormed an internet cafe in the coastal city of Alexandria. The attack left Khaled Said, a 28-year-old man dead.

At that point, the crime could have not made headlines, and could have gone unquestioned like many other police torture crimes in Egypt, but a picture of an innocent-looking, premortem Khaled and another of his body showing a swollen, badly bruised face and mangled jaw, were circulated on the internet, particularly Facebook, like wildfire.

Luckily for systematic torture victims, unluckily for the Egyptian government, the picture sent shockwaves across Egypt, and internationally as well. Amnesty International was quick to urge Egypt to investigate the brutal killing of Khaled. Word was out on AlJazeera too, the Egyptian government's bitter enemy, if you may. On Thursday a group of activists demonstrated in front of the Sidi Gaber police station, the station which sent the informers and where reportedly a police officer oversaw the killing. Puzzling news was spread of an acquittal of the informers and an accusation of protesters of "insulting a government body."

The reasons for the gruesome murder have been questioned, but to date there is no confirmed explanation. The few eye witnesses present first said that the informers asked Khaled roughly for his ID and wanted to search him. When he protested and asked about their search warrant, they tied him up, beat his head against a marble shelf, dragged him out of the cafe and continued beating his head against an adjacent iron door. They then took his lifeless body to the police station for a few minutes, only to return and leave it in the crime scene. Another more popular story was circulated, according to which Khaled had a video dating to late 2009 showing a police officer and a group of informers distributing money and weed after capturing them from a dealer.

The shameless Ministry of Interior issued a phony statement to explain Khaled's death. They said Khaled died of asphyxia after he swallowed a drug joint. Adding insult to injury (in this case brutal murder), they also spread rumours that Khaled, whose name literally translates to "immortal happy", was a drug junkie who escaped mandatory military service. In response, the certificate of the military service was scanned and widely circulated to show that the MOI's side of the story is a badly orchestrated spoof. People on twitter wondered how asphyxia can cause undeniable damage to the skull as shown in the picture. One twitter user, Wael Abd El-Fattah, sarcastically noted that Khaled actually died of Egyptian regime asphyxia. More importantly, even if he is a drug addict, what law or even logic is there which allows beating addicts to death?

The murder became the talk of the country and the virtual community. But activists decided to take it to the streets as well, not in front of the press syndicate, lawyers' syndicate, People's Assembly, Shura Council or Attorney-General's office as has been the norm in the past few years for most protests in Egypt, but in front of the MOI headquarters in Lazoughly. The in-your-face protest of around 200 people was predictably kettled. Downtown Cairo where the MOI is was "occupied by the police" as activists described it. Many activists were verbally harassed, beaten, injured and detained. Mobile phones and cameras were confiscated. They expressed a direct link between the Emergency Law which provides unlimited power to law enforcement authorities and the murder of Khaled. The Ministry has been described as "the ministry of torture", and protesters screamed for the killers to go to trial. Under Emergency Law and the systematic use of torture, any one of us could be Khaled, this was their claim. Apparently, the MOI had expected people to be too horrified by the picture to protest in fear of facing a similar fate, but was surprised by their resilience.

Hopes were hung on a not-very-reliable authority to bring justice to Khaled; the media. Saturday night satellite talk shows showed reports on the murder, but still focused mainly on the MOI statement. On Sunday night, the popular Ashera Masaan showed the video from the police station which allegedly caused Khaled's untimely death. Announcer Mona El-Shazly asserted that the video is authentic, but that it is a celebration of the capture of the dealer, contrary to other views which accused the police of distributing the money and the drugs. Frustratingly enough, El-Shazly did not show the other side of the story and did not report with Khaled's brother. She in other words acquitted the MOI of a corruption case in the eyes of millions of viewers as far as the video is concerned. However, she wondered if informers actually have the authority to arrest people, not to mention beat them up in such a brutal way. Mona's comment poses even more questions on the motives, making it even scarier that Khaled possibly died for no reason at all, not that any reason is acceptable. Instead of dedicating a time slot in her programme to the crime, she interviewed someone about the alleged hacking of AlJazeera world cup satellite transmission.

Newspapers were divided according to their very own allegiances. The government mouthpiece Al-Gumhuriya published yesterday a joke of an article by the editor-in-chief sarcastically describing Sunday protest as a "protest for a junkie." Interestingly, he "accused" the protesters of "gaining strength" from international "authorities." It is an unintentional, subconscious reference to the fact that Egyptian authorities, namely the Ministry of Justice, are often too weak to punish police criminals. Independent Al-Shorouq newsapaper, on the other hand, published balanced timely updates on the crime and the aftermath, as well as the pictures of both life and death, making it impossible for readers to buy the story of the Ministry.


As if it could get any worse, journalist Ahmad Ragab posted on twitter news on yet another death by torture in a police station. The details are all too familiar. Saber Abd El-Semei, 58, protested when informers tried to remove a kiosk for selling sandwiches. He was kidnapped and taken to Nasr City police station. His family found his body five days later in Heliopolis hospital. His daughter was told by the doctors in the morgue that he was beaten with a BB gun on his head until he died.

Ethical concerns were voiced about the spread of the picture of Khaled's lifeless body. Not only because it was probably published prior to his family's consent, but it is also a horrific, shocking picture, unwillingly seen by Facebook users and newspaper readers. The dramatic twist in the story is that, had the picture not been published, Khaled's murder might have received minimum to zero attention, not to mention legal prosecution. Unless families of victims and supporters speak up, this will be the case with Saber for example.

After five tense days of shock, anger and hurt, the first sigh of relief came when blogger and journalist Hossam El-Hamalawy, who was also injured in the Lazoughly portest, tweeted that family lawyers and prosecutors were then investigating the crime scene one day after the Attorney-General ordered the case to be reopened. Thankfully, the few witnesses were present as well to testify.

As expected there are calls for the stepdown of Minister of Interior Habib Al-Adly. Systematic torture in Egypt (as a republic) has been practiced since the fifties. The only development is that whereas in the past it was exclusive to political opponents such as the Muslim Brotherhood, now innocent people are not immune from it. Not even women and children are. It is a cruel regime that can only be cured by being uprooted. We are crushed under the weight of political oppression and poverty and vent out anger among ourselves. Nonetheless, a change of names is not the only answer. Egyptians need to know their self-worth and legal rights. We need to know that save for instances of war and self-defence, no one deserves to be physically assaulted. We now engage in scuffles over everything from a minor threat of a car accident to theft or burglary. Furthermore, even when victims of torture or their families insist on persecuting the police criminals, the sentences are often disproportionate with the harm done. Take the case of Emad El-Kebir, who was sodomised, beaten and humiliated, and in return his bully/policeman Islam Nabih received a fleeting three years in jail sentence and was not suspended from his job. In any case, it is left for the hands of a slow and frail justice system to lessen the brunt of torture in Egypt.