Egypt: Stand Up for Khalid Said!
June 19, 2010 • By Geoffrey MockSince the brutal police beating of businessman Khalid Said on June 6, 2010, protesters have taken to the streets all over Egypt to draw attention to the curbs on civil rights imposed by the Mubarak Government. In a statement issued on June 14, 2010 Amnesty International is calling for an immediate in investigation into Khalid’s death at the hands of security forces. (Click here to take action.)
According to news reports, Khalid Said, a young businessman was apprehended and beaten outside an Internet café in Alexandria. Videos and photographs of the brutal killing show Khalid’s face severely disfigured by the beating he had received. In statements, the owner of the internet café outside which Khalid was killed, said that security forces showed up outside his establishment dragged Khalid into the street and killed him there. In a video released on the internet, Hassan Mosbah the café owner, said that officers battered Khalid’s head against a marble café table before dragging him into a neighboring building. When the officers returned they were carrying Khalid’s body which they abandoned in the street in front of the café. The Interior Ministry of Egypt is alleging that Khalid was wanted by the police and swallowed a joint when he saw the security forces and thus choked to death. This account is severely contested by the pictures of Khalid Said’s body released on various social networking sites by eyewitnesses who saw the beating. Khalid Said’s relatives were informed of his death but were not allowed to see the body. Khalid Said was reportedly targeted because he was about to release a video that he had obtained from friends showing Egyptian police dividing up spoils of a drug bust.
Since Khalid’s death protests have erupted all over Egypt against police brutality. More than 100 protesters demonstrated in Cairo on Sunday June 14, 2010 and scores were arrested by police. The protestors held up pictures of Khalid Said and hoped to bring attention to the routine flouting of freedoms of speech and association by the Mubarak regime. Aida Seif El Dawla, head of the El Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, said to the Christian Science Monitor that Said’s case is “flagrant,” but not unusual. Dr. Dawla says that the number of torture and brutality cases documented by the Nadim Center has risen in the past few years. “People are getting angrier, and this is the only thing that maintains the stability of the regime,” she says. “Stories like this are meant to terrorize the victims and the people around the victims. And this is how the regime is ruling – by terror.”
Amnesty International is calling for an investigation to be carried out on Khalid Said’s death in line with international standards including those within the United Nations Principles on Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions. There is also concern about the fact that the State of Emergency was further extended for another two years in Egypt allowing for institutionalized abridgement of civil liberties. Along with those protesting the tragic death of Khalid Said, the international community must focus its eyes on Egypt and the increasing stifling of free speech and freedom of association in Egypt by the Mubarak Government. Amnesty International is joining the international community is asking for prompt accountability for those involved in Khalid Said’s death since failure to do so will further encourage the culture of impunity and allow such brutality to continue.
The other Egyptian police killings which Amnesty International should also condemn are those frequently occurring on the Gaza-Egypt border where the corrupt Egyptian Police massively profiting off the smuggler trade to Gaza while at the same time enforcing Egypt's illegal blockade of Gaza with a policy of shoot to kill on Gazan civilians trying to cross into Egypt:
Just a few examples:
1)
source: Al Jezeera
January 06, 2010 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010…
An Egyptian border guard has been killed and 35 Palestinians wounded along the Gaza border during fierce clashes with Egyptian security forces.
A border protest on Wednesday turned violent over frustration that the aid convoy, Viva Palestina, had been blockaded.
Egyptian forces opened fire to disperse stone-throwing protesters who had gathered on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, witnesses and medics said.
2)
June 19th, 2010
A Palestinian was shot and injured by Egyptian forces while trying to illegally cross into the country from the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official told the German Press Agency DPA on Saturday.
The other Egyptian police killings which Amnesty International should also condemn are those frequently occurring on the Gaza-Egypt border where the corrupt Egyptian Police massively profiting off the smuggler trade to Gaza while at the same time enforcing Egypt's illegal blockade of Gaza with a policy of shoot to kill on Gazan civilians trying to cross into Egypt:
Just a few examples:
1)
source: Al Jezeera
January 06, 2010 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010…
An Egyptian border guard has been killed and 35 Palestinians wounded along the Gaza border during fierce clashes with Egyptian security forces.
A border protest on Wednesday turned violent over frustration that the aid convoy, Viva Palestina, had been blockaded.
Egyptian forces opened fire to disperse stone-throwing protesters who had gathered on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, witnesses and medics said.
2)
June 19th, 2010
A Palestinian was shot and injured by Egyptian forces while trying to illegally cross into the country from the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official told the German Press Agency DPA on Saturday.
The other Egyptian police killings which Amnesty International should also condemn are those frequently occurring on the Gaza-Egypt border where the corrupt Egyptian Police massively profiting off the smuggler trade to Gaza while at the same time enforcing Egypt's illegal blockade of Gaza with a policy of shoot to kill on Gazan civilians trying to cross into Egypt:
Just a few examples:
1)
source: Al Jezeera
January 06, 2010 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010…
An Egyptian border guard has been killed and 35 Palestinians wounded along the Gaza border during fierce clashes with Egyptian security forces.
A border protest on Wednesday turned violent over frustration that the aid convoy, Viva Palestina, had been blockaded.
Egyptian forces opened fire to disperse stone-throwing protesters who had gathered on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, witnesses and medics said.
2)
June 19th, 2010
A Palestinian was shot and injured by Egyptian forces while trying to illegally cross into the country from the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official told the German Press Agency DPA on Saturday.
The other Egyptian police killings which Amnesty International should also condemn are those frequently occurring on the Gaza-Egypt border where the corrupt Egyptian Police massively profiting off the smuggler trade to Gaza while at the same time enforcing Egypt’s illegal blockade of Gaza with a policy of shoot to kill on Gazan civilians trying to cross into Egypt:
Just a few examples:
1)
source: Al Jezeera
January 06, 2010
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/201016123715308843.html
An Egyptian border guard has been killed and 35 Palestinians wounded along the Gaza border during fierce clashes with Egyptian security forces.
A border protest on Wednesday turned violent over frustration that the aid convoy, Viva Palestina, had been blockaded.
Egyptian forces opened fire to disperse stone-throwing protesters who had gathered on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing, witnesses and medics said.
2)
June 19th, 2010
A Palestinian was shot and injured by Egyptian forces while trying to illegally cross into the country from the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official told the German Press Agency DPA on Saturday.
Antoine Pridham
Antoine Pridham
No justice for Khaled Said = more Egyptian citizens murdered by by Egyptian police.
No justice for Khaled Said = more Egyptian citizens murdered by by Egyptian police.