Black Lives Matter protests in US spark mixed reactions in Egypt
Protests in the United States have drawn mixed reactions in Egypt, with government supporters and the media portraying them as anarchy and pro-democracy activists eyeing them with nostalgia and a sense of deja vu.
June 6 marked the 10th anniversary of the death in police custody of Khaled Said, a young activist who was beaten to death by policemen outside an internet cafe in Alexandria for posting a video showing police officers dividing the spoils from a drug bust.
Images of Said's battered face went viral after they were published on the Facebook page We are all Khaled Said, created by Egyptian activists to bring attention to police brutality and other human rights abuses under Hosni Mubarak's regime. The haunting images provoked outrage among Egyptian social media users, fueling discontent that some months later would escalate into a full-scale mass uprising, forcing Mubarak to step down.
The two policemen responsible for Said's death were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison in a 2014 retrial that followed their appeal of an earlier seven-year sentence they were handed down in October 2011.
This year, the anniversary of Said's death passed without incident, save for a few online memorials published by some activists nostalgic for the brief period in 2011 during and immediately following the uprising when they had believed that democratic change was possible. Their hopes for a freer, more just society have since been dashed, thanks to a restrictive environment that since mid-2013 has seen the arrests and detentions of thousands of opposition figures and government critics, including many of the liberal activists who participated in the 2011 anti-government protests.
