Some 40 persons detained yesterday evening during demonstrations in central Cairo have been released, lawyers confirmed. Activists and human rights advocates from the Egyptian Association for Change, the April 6 Movement, the Kefeya Movement and the Hisham Mubarak Law Center demonstrated to protest the killing of Khaled Saeed, 28, who was beaten to death by police in an internet café in Alexandria last week.
“We have checked that all the listed detainees are freed,” Ahmed Ezzat, a lawyer with the Association for Freedom of Thought and Rights, told Al-Masry Al-Youm just a few minutes after their release.
Around 150 demonstrators gathered in Lazoghly Square, some 100 meters away from the Egyptian Ministry of Interior and State Security building. Another gathering took place in Talaat Harb, downtown Cairo.
“Khaled Saeed was in an internet café in the district of Cleopatra in Alexandria when a group of detectives started inspecting the café… Khaled refused to be inspected and the result was his transformation into a dead corpse,” reads the statement distributed by Youth of the Egyptian Association for Change.
Egyptian security forces however issued a statement saying Saeed died from choking on hash cigarettes, which he swallowed to conceal from the police.
International and Egyptian human rights groups believe Saeed was tortured to death. “How can the prosecutor claim that the broken bones and disfiguration is a result of the autopsy? Would they need to break the skull and separate the jaw… in search of the drug package?” asks a report by El Nadim Center for Psychological Rehabilitation and Victims of Violence and Torture.
“The horrific photographs are shocking evidence of the abuses taking place in Egypt,” said Amnesty International.
The demonstration, which started at 5 PM and lasted for more than three hours, resulted in around forty detentions. “This is one of the lengthiest demonstrations in which I’ve ever participated,” Aida Saif el-Dawla, head of the El-Nadim Centre, told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
According to el-Dawla, plainclothes police penetrated the heavy rows of riot police, apprehending around half of the protestors. Many were released after their cell phones and cameras were confiscated.
Many present were university students. “I saw the invitation on Facebook, so I came directly after my exams,” said Abdel Hamid Heneish, a third-year law student. “I came here because of what happened to Khaled… What happened should be countered by uprisings in order to send a message.”
Amid the massive presence of riot police, the demonstrators chanted: “Adly Beh, Adly Beh, tell me why did you kill Khaled?”–addressing Habib el-Adly, Egypt’s interior minister. “Oh Egyptian, tell me what you’re waiting for after blood was shed?” the slogans continued, in an attempt to capture the attention of downtown Caireans watching the demonstration from their windows.
As time passed, riot police blocked in the crowd, clashing with demonstrators several times. Around three persons fainted from the suffocating pile-up of protestors.
Later in the evening demonstrators held a vigil in remembrance of Saeed, a few minutes before security forces allowed the remaining crowd to leave, three by three. Each demonstrator was photographed by a security guard on the way out.
