Approximately 2,500 people gathered along Alexandria’s Corniche to protest the alleged torture and killing of Alexandrian Khaled Saeed. The protesters then marched to Saeed’s home.
Police maintained a remarkably limited presence during the protest.
Activists from the National Association for Change (NAC), Eksab Haqak, Egyptians Against Corruption, and Egyptian Women for Change raised banners that read, “We Are All Khaled Saeed,” “No to the Emergency Law, No to Torture,” and that cited article 54 of the Constitution, which gives Egyptian citizens the right to demonstrate.
The protesters urged Egyptians to express solidarity with Saeed next Tuesday, when the first trial of the two policemen implicated in the incident is set to begin.
Lawyer Mohamed Abdel Aziz said the protest seeks to achieve five things: to force the Egyptian government to sign the anti-torture protocol it failed to sign last month; to make it mandatory that any police officer accused of torture be dismissed from duty; to constantly monitor conditions at police stations; to expand the definition of torture in the penal code; and to impose a harsher penalty for the use of cruelty against citizens.
Members of a Facebook group called “We’re All Khaled Saeed” dressed in black and organized a protest from Road el-Farag metro station to el-Fateh Mosque in Cairo. The protest was broken up by security forces.
Following the intervention by security, protesters walked down Shubra Street, demanding that the police officers accused of torturing Saeed be brought to justice.
In Zagazig, protesters organized along the Nile Corniche. The protest lasted an hour before being shut down by security. Two activists from the NAC were arrested.
In Suez, security forces removed any person wearing black clothing from the Nile Corniche area, explaining that a senior official was due to drive by.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
