Egyptian cyberactivist is new protest hero
A young Egyptian executive at Google emerged on Tuesday as a hero of
the revolt against President Hosni Mubarak after his emotional response
to the uprising touched millions.
Wael Ghonim was already an anonymous champion of the opposition -
working as a cyberactivist mobilising pro-democracy protests through a
popular Facebook page - when he was arrested on January 27 during
protests in Cairo.
Google's 30-year-old marketing chief for the Middle East was released
late Monday after being held blindfolded by the Egyptian security
service for 12 days, no longer anonymous and suddenly at the centre of
events.
He appeared in an interview on Egypt's Dream 2 television channel,
and his powerful reaction has since become an Internet hit in Egypt and
beyond and a viral recruiting tool for the protest movement now entering
its third week.
He acknowledged starting a Facebook group called "We are all Khaled
Said" in memory of an Egyptian man who, human rights activists say, was
dragged from a cafe and beaten to death by police in June.
The Facebook site was instrumental in starting the anti-regime
protests on January 25 that quickly spread, rocking Mubarak's autocratic
regime but also leading to clashes in which around 300 people have so
far died.
"I was blindfolded for 12 days, I couldn't hear anything, I didn't
know what was happening," he said, recounting his ordeal, which inspired
expressions of concern from around the world.
Amnesty International had warned that Ghonim could face torture in
Egypt's notorious jails after his family reported they had been unable
to confirm his arrest or whereabouts for several days. "I'm not a hero,
I slept for 12 days," the executive said. "The heroes, they're the ones
who were in the street, who took part in the demonstrations, sacrificed
their lives, were beaten, arrested and exposed to danger."
When the channel showed images of some of the young people killed
during the protests, Ghonim bowed his head and wept.
"I want to tell every mother, every father who lost a son, I'm sorry.
It's not our fault, I swear, it's not our fault, it's the fault of
everyone who was in power and held on to it," he said.
"I want to go," he said, before suddenly getting up and leaving the
studio.
On Tuesday, he told his followers on Twitter that he was heading for
Tahrir Square to join the ranks of the activists who have been occupying
the iconic space for 12 days.
"This is the revolution of the youth of the Internet, which became
the revolution of the youth of Egypt, then the revolution of Egypt
itself," he said in his Dream TV interview.
While insisting his secretive arrest and detention had been a crime,
he expressed some empathy for the officers who interrogated him, saying
that some of them seemed sincere but misinformed Egyptian patriots.
"They were 100 percent convinced that foreigners are behind us, that
someone manipulates and finances us," he said. "But if I was a traitor I
would have stayed in my villa with my swimming pool in the Emirates.
"We are not traitors."
Ghonim told the channel he had met Interior Minister Mahmud Wagdi on
the point of his release, and confirmed reports that the new secretary
general of Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) had played a role
in freeing him. CAIRO, AFP
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