Cairo, Feb. 5: If there is a face to the revolt that has sprouted in Egypt, it may be the face of Khaled Said.
Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian businessman, was pulled from an Internet cafe in Alexandria last June by two plainclothes police officers, who, witnesses say, then beat him to death in the lobby of a residential building. Human rights advocates said he was killed because he had evidence of police corruption.
The Egyptian police and security services have a well-earned reputation for brutality and snuffing out political opposition. But in Mr. Said, they unwittingly chose the wrong target.
Within five days of his death, an anonymous person created a Facebook page — We Are All Khaled Said — that posted cell phone photos from the morgue of his battered and bloodied face, and You Tube videos played up pictures of him with the graphic images from the morgue. “There were many catalysts of the uprising,” said Mr Ahmed Zidan, an online political activist marching towards Tahrir Square. “The first was the brutal murder of Khalid Said.”