The family of an Egyptian blogger, who was allegedly tortured to death by police, slammed as absurd a second autopsy report that confirmed he had died of asphyxia, not a police beating. "This report is a sheer farce designed to hide the truth," Ahmed, the brother of Khaled Saaed, whose death in the coastal city of Alexandria earlier this month has become a rallying point for opponents of the Emergency Law in Egypt. "If he had died of asphyxia after swallowing a drug bag, why had he stayed alive for 40 minutes after being beaten?" Saeed's brother asked. Rights groups said Saeed, 28, was beaten to death by undercover police in Alexandria, on June 6 after he posted an Internet video, which his family said showed police sharing the profits of a drug bust. The lawyer for Saeed's family, Mohamed Abdel Aziz, said he had strated procedures to file a report on his death to the UN Human Rights Council, scheduled to convene next month in Geneva. "We are sorry for resorting to international bodies. However, injustice has prompted us to this," Abdel Aziz said in press remarks. The Interior Ministry had said Saeed died after choking on drugs he swallowed before police approached him, but Egypt's Chief Prosecutor last week ordered a new autopsy because of the public outrage over the finding. Conducted by the State-run Department of Forensic Medicine, the autopsy concluded that Saeed's death was brought on by "the clogging of the breathing passages by a foreign object identified as a plastic roll containing marijuana". On Wednesday, Attorney General Yasser Refae told a new conference that Saeed's body displayed signs of injuries resulting from a "collision with solid objects", but such injuries were not the cause of death. Supporters, meanwhile, have called for silent protests across the country today to pay tribute to Saeed as a victim to the Emergency Law. Mohamed ElBaradei, the former chief UN nuclear watchdog chief who might challenge for the presidency next year, has said he will take part. "This report show that the Government is controlling everything. However, we should never be scared of this," ElBaradei said on his account on the social networking website Twitter. The US has urged Egypt to repeal the Emergency Law, which has been in force since 1981. Egypt says the focus of the law is security and drug cases, but critics argue is it used to silence opposition. A Facebook group memorial page called "We are Khaled Saeed" has drawn some 130,000 members. It calls on Egyptians to dress in black and stage a silent protest for an hour today. So far, activists in eight provinces, including Alexandria and Cairo, have announced they would protest simultaneously from 6:30-7:30 p.m. ElBaradei said he would join the protest in Alexandria. Up to 8,000 Egyptians wearing black protested along the corniche in Alexandria last week. Some recited verses of the Holy Qur'an and Bible. On Sunday protesters tried to march in downtown Cairo against alleged police brutality and in solidarity with Saeed, but the gathering was swiftly dispersed by police.
