Egypt: Khalid Said Case Continues

Protests over the June 6 death of Khalid Said continued over the weekend, as several groups organized events in advance of the opening of the first trial of the two policemen involved, which is set to begin tomorrow. In Alexandria, about 2,500 Egyptians assembled on the Corniche, including members of the National Association for Change (NAC), Eksab Haqak, Egyptians Against Corruption, and Egyptian Women for Change. The group held banners with the slogans “We Are All Khaled Saeed” and “No to the Emergency Law, No to Torture.” In Cairo, police broke up a protest by black-clad members of the Facebook group “We’re All Khaled Saeed” as well as a demonstration along the Nile Corniche, in which two NAC activists were arrested. Attorney Mohamed Abdel Aziz cited 5 goals to the protests: to force the Egyptian government to sign an anti-torture protocol; to institute mandatory dismissal of any police officers accused of torture; to monitor police stations; to expand the definition of torture in Egyptian law; and to institute more severe penalties for police brutality against citizens.

The protests also came following a new development in the Khalid case, as Ali Qassem, Said’s uncle, alleged last week that nine men joined by Egyptian security forces attacked and threatened one of the witnesses, Tamer el-Sayed Mohamed, trying to coerce him into altering his testimony.