Wael Ghonim with Khaled Said’s mother

Khaled Said was the unfortunate 28-year-old blogger beaten to death in Alexandria last year. (The media keeps saying “allegedly,” but as far as I know it was done quite openly, on the streets, with many witnesses. The poor guy was dragged from a cybercafe.)

The apparent motive for Said’s death is that he posted footage on the web of Alexandria police divvying up for themselves the drugs seized in a bust. The public reaction to his death was already quite fierce, leading to some of the largest and most fearless protests seen in Egypt up to that point. In a sense, Said’s death can be viewed as the pre-history of the present revolution.

Wael Ghonim created a Facebook group devoted to Khaled Said, and you know everything that happened after that.