Youth’s killing shocks Egyptians

The death of a young man at the hands of police in Alexandria in June has given fresh momentum to calls for political change in Egypt, where the security services maintain an iron grip and protest movements find it hard to mobilise a fearful public.

Pictures of Khaled Said’s bloodied face, widespread on the internet and in the press, have outraged Egyptians and contributed to a sense of political malaise. Egypt appears to be drifting towards an uncharted transfer of power after Hosni Mubarak, the 82-year-old president who spent more than three weeks in a German hospital this year, passes from the scene.

“The killing of Khaled Said marks a milestone allowing us to bring new generations into the national movement,” said Ahmed Maher, a youth activist and co-ordinator of the 6th April Movement, an opposition group that will hold the latest in a series of protests against police impunity on Friday.

Demonstrations around the country have expressed public anger at the killing of Said, who died at the age of 28. The strength of feeling has been deepened by the interior ministry’s attempt to portray him as a petty criminal and drug addict.

A protest in Alexandria last month was attended by 4,000 people – a high number by Egyptian standards where many people are afraid to join demonstrations. The marchers included families with children, going beyond the core of opposition activists who normally turn out for such events.

Said died after two plainclothes police officers dragged him out of an internet café and beat him to death, banging his head against a staircase. The interior ministry denied that he had been assaulted, saying Said choked on drugs he swallowed when approached by the detectives.

But public outrage forced the authorities to carry out a new autopsy, which confirmed the police story. But with eyewitnesses coming forward, prosecutors filed charges against the two detectives of unlawful detention and using unnecessary force.

“This has become an emblematic case,” said Hossam Bahgat, who heads the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “It is a breakthrough in the fight against torture. The fact that he was not a political activist, or a criminal but someone who belongs to the demographic majority of young people has made many youths identify with him.”

Egypt will hold parliamentary polls in October and a presidential election next year.

If Mr Mubarak does not seek another term, there is no obvious successor beyond his son, Gamal, who serves as a leading official in the ruling National Democratic party.

The two men deny any plans for the younger Mr Mubarak to step into his father’s shoes, but analysts and the opposition say it is the most likely scenario.

The authoritarian system has prevented the emergence of any serious challengers for the presidency. Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has returned to Egypt to lead a campaign for reform, hinting that he might run for president. But so far he has failed to mobilise the wider public.

Egypt has been governed by emergency laws since 1981, when Mr Mubarak came to office following the assassination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat.

Mr Maher says that young people who join the protests against Said’s death come out of a sense of shock and not primarily for political reasons. But he believes they are increasingly “making the connection” between the emergency law, which gives the police extensive powers, and the ruling party, which renewed the legislation earlier this year.

Even if activists hope that Said’s death will be a turning point in the fight against torture by the state, they know that change is not likely to happen quickly.

“The decision to stop torture is political and it has to come from the president,” said Mr Bahgat.

“The signs are not good. Beatings of demonstrators started as early as April. This is too early for an election season. I am not optimistic.”