Sayed Abdullah Mohamed Attia
“If you wanna kill me then kill me… but you’ll never silence my voice…” were words that Sayed Abdullah Mohamed Attia, known as Sayed Wezza, said in front of the Supreme Court in Downtown Cairo during one of the protests on September 3rd, 2013, when a thug tried to attack the protest in objection to the chants of the protesters against the Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, Mohamed Ibrahim.
Sayed was a member of the 6th of April movement and had participated in the 25th of January Revolution. He participated later in the protests to demanded reform, as well as the anniversary of the Revolution.
He wrote on the 28th of June 2012: “I swear to Allah, we have not forgotten about your blood Martyr”. He also wrote on the 1st of September 2013: “I swear to Allah, my friend, no matter how much I write to you I won’t be able to describe to you how much I have missed you. I ask Allah to bring me together with you in the heaven of eternity along with Uncle Mohamed, Gika, Khaled, and Ayman.”
On the 24th of September 2013 he wrote: “When I die, my friend, get up and take my place, as our country has sworn to only live in freedom.” He also wrote: “Vengeance. Vengeance,” and “We’re a free generation even if we had to live in bitterness.”
According to the testimony of Professor Gihan Shaban who had attended the same protest in front of Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque in El-Mohandessin area he alleges that Sayed Wezza was not killed because he participated in a protest, but he killed at the hands a police officer in Downtown in Cairo in front of the Egyptian Central Bank. Sayed was sitting among his friends in a coffee shop after it was confirmed that the Ministry of Internal Affairs would not allow any protest commemorating the memory of the Revolution except for ones supporting the regime.
And according to Sayed’s friend who was with him when the police fired at him: when Sayed heard the voices of a protester that was being chased by the Internal Affairs officers he stood up to watch what was going on when a police officer shot him with live bullets. All of his friends attempted to take him to the hospital but did not succeed as he had already taken his last breaths.
Sayed wasn’t the only one who was killed that day, five others also died and hundreds were injured. Twenty days after he was killed, the 6th of April Movement organized “The Democratic Front” on 15th of February. It was a protest in memory of the martyrdom of Sayed Wezza who was assassinated at the hands of police forces during the recent anniversary of the 25th of January Revolution in front of the Central Bank in Downtown. The initiative began with an absentee funeral prayer for the spirit of the martyr and all of the martyrs of the revolution followed by a symbolic protest in the same location he died. The protesters chanted a number of chants including: “Sayed Wezza, young boy, your blood is freeing a country;” and “the protesters are not thugs! Down with your injustice, internal forces!”
The Court of Cassation upheld a sentence of imprisonment for the 13 suspects in the case of the 3rd anniversary of the 25th of January Revolution, along with processing the case that is known to the media as “Sayed Wezza.”