Egyptian cyberactivist is new protest hero

Wael Ghonim - anonymous champion of Egypt opposition – released after being detained for 12 days.

Middle East Online

By Ines Bel Aiba - CAIRO

'The heroes, they're the ones who were in the street' 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. "I can't tell you how proud I am of you," he said of the protest movement. "The interior minister was sat face-to-face with me on the basis of equality. He was speaking to me on the basis that I am strong and he is strong." And he refused to thank the NDP chief, saying that by lobbying for his release Hossam Badrawi had "simply been doing his duty because I am a young man who loves Egypt and is a son of Egypt. "I told him: 'I don't want to see the NDP logo in the streets of Egypt any more. I don't want to see the NDP," he added. In Tahrir Square, protesters have spray-painted Google, Twitter and Facebook logos on shuttered shopfronts and on the army tanks arrayed around them. Google issued a statement welcoming its employee's release, without commenting on his political engagement. "It is a huge relief that Wael Ghonim has been released. We send our best wishes to him and his family," the 200-billion-dollar California-based search giant said in a statement.