ALEXANDRIA - Around 5,000 Egyptians protested in Alexandria on Friday, along with Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN atomic watchdog, against an Egyptian blogger whose family say was beaten to death by police. The protesters, who also included the prominent activists Hamdeen Sabahe and Ayman Nour, chanted anti-torture slogans as anti-riot police looked on. Saeed, an Internet activist, died outside a cyber café in Alexandria on June 6. His family and local eyewitnesses said two detectives had beaten him to death. The case has set off criticism from the local and international human rights groups, who blamed police for his death under the Emergency Law, which has been in force in Egypt since 1981. ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prize winner, made a visit also on Friday accompanied by his wife Ayda el-Khashef and his brother Ali to offer condolences to the family of Saeed. The visit was ElBaradei's first to Alexandria since his return to Egypt last February after more than two decades. A second autopsy report said that the 28-year-old blogger had died of asphyxia after choking on a bag of drugs. Meanwhile, his family and local eyewitnesses insist Saeed had been beaten to death by two dectives. The family of Saeed slammed as absurd the 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 Saeed, 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.
