CAIRO: Hours after a 24-year-old man was reportedly tortured and killed at an Egyptian prison, the country's activists had begun to take their anger online. The new anti-police torture campaign brings back memories of June 2010, when Khaled Said‘s death began a movement against the regime that culminated in the 18-day uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak. According to the al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation and Torture, Essam Atta suffered a severe drop in blood pressure and heart failure after being tortured by police officials at Tora prison. According to the man's lawyer and others familiar with the case, Atta was reportedly tortured to death after prison guards discovered a SIM card in his cell. Inmates at the prison were reported to have told the Nadeem Center that prison guards pushed hoses into the man's mouth and anus, which led to him bleeding to death. He was serving two years in jail, after being convicted by a military court on February 25 for an unspecified crime. Nadeem Center's chief Aida Seif al-Dowla called on Egyptians to support the man's family, and they responded by launching campaigns on the micro-blogging site Twitter and on Facebook in the same fervor that the “We are all Khaled Said” page in June of 2010 sparked widespread anger and developed into giving Egyptians more cause to take to the streets. Angering Egyptians even further was the manner in which Atta's body was dropped in front of the Qasr el-Aini hospital in critical condition. Doctors were unable to save the man. “Even if we do not have SCAF, we have a police mentality corrupted and sick enough to make our life like hell if we do no take the correct decision and stand,” wrote leading blogger Zeinobia shortly after the news was made public. “The police force should be disbanded … we got unemployed youth enough to fill in. “Torture in Egyptian jails is not the product of SCAF rule or Mubarak rule, it is the product of decades yet it will be not hard to stop it, not only to limit it but to stop it,” she added. On Twitter, there was a constant stream of anger toward Egypt's police, who many feel have returned to the country's streets en masse and are beginning to take up similar action toward citizens that resulted in widespread antagonism before the beginning of the Egyptian uprising on January 25. The Facebook page “We are all Essam” has already been created, with over 1,300 likes as of Thursday morning. B
