ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Had it not been for a leaked morgue photo of his mangled corpse, tenacious relatives and the power of Facebook, the death of Khaled Said would have become a footnote in the annals of Egyptian police brutality.
Instead, outrage over the beating death of the 28-year-old man last summer, and attempts by local authorities to cover it up, helped spark the mass protests demanding the ouster of Egypt’s authoritarian president.
Said’s death is in many ways the story of today’s Egypt, where an authoritarian regime is being roiled by a groundswell of popular anger. Fear and resentment of the police has been a prominent theme, and when Google executive Wael Ghonim created a Facebook page titled “We are all Khaled Said,” the grisly morgue photo went viral and the public had a rallying point.
“Every family in Egypt has seen something like this happen to a member,” Ali Kassem, Said’s uncle, said Tuesday. “I will feel like I have attained justice only if the regime falls and a new government is formed.”
Police officers at an Internet cafe below Said’s apartment were exchanging a video that showed officers dividing seized narcotics and cash. Relatives think the clip was delivered via Bluetooth to Said’s computer by accident. The young man shared it with friends, who forwarded it to others.
Two of the detectives implicated in the video later approached Said and are alleged to have beaten him to death. After local prosecutors expressed little interest in pursuing the case, Kassem, who was a father figure to Said, began holding news conferences. Said’s cousins created a page on Facebook to expose what they called police brutality, as did Ghonim.
Under pressure, prosecutors opened an investigation that led to the arrests of two detectives in the beating and an officer accused in the coverup. The case has not gone to trial.
