Closing scene
26 February, almost 9 years to the day after his ouster in a popular revolt, Egypt`s long serving dictator is buried in Cairo. The man who dominated Egyptian politics for 30 years is buried with full military honour, with Egypt’s current dictator, leading the funeral. Three days of national morning are declared. The death of Mubarak brought into sharp view the still polarized state of Egyptian politics, as many fondly remember his reign as a period of stability, while others, remember the victims of his repression, corruption, mismanagement, and his plans to pass the presidency to his son, Gamal. His reign, the revolt against it, and all the tragedies that followed, remain as a stark reminder of what could have been, what is, and what the future might hold.
Scene 1
6 June 2010, a summer day in the city of Alexandria, Khaled Saeed was sitting in an internet café, in the middle class area of Sidi Gabir. Two members of the security forces enter the café and attempt to arrest the twenty something young man. He is then dragged outside of the café to the stair well of an adjacent building, where he is beaten to death. The beating involved banging his head against iron bars, the concrete stairs, and the floor of the stairwell.
The attack is unprovoked, and the beating continued after Khaled died. The beating fractured his skull, and dislocated his jaw. The police claimed that he died from asphyxiation, as he attempted to swallow a packet of Hashish to avoid detection. His family leaks a picture of his mutilated face, and it appears on social media. The outrage is immediate, and a new Facebook page is created, called “We are all Khaled Saeed”, which attracts hundreds of thousands of followers. In 7 month, this page would be instrumental in spreading the call for protest that would topple Mubarak. Khaled was the lastest victim of a police brutality, which was spiralling out of control over the previous few years.
