Anas Mohy Addin
Anas was a 15 year old child who loved two things wholeheartedly: Al-Ahly Football club and the Egyptian revolution. In a strange gesture after the revolution, he wrote on his Facebook profile, “When I die my will is the following: my body to be wrapped in the Egyptian flag and my funeral to proceed from Tahrir Square. My eyes are to be donated to two revolutionaries in need of eyes and the rest of my body organs are to be donated as well.”
He was an enthusiastic fan of Al Ahly Club. One year before the revolution Anas joined an Al Ahly Ultras through some of his friends.
One year after the revolution, Al Ahly was about to participate in an important game in Port Said which Anas wanted watch, but his mother asked him not to go this time because of the expected post-game violence. He didn’t listen and insisted on going. He arrived with his friends at Port Said Stadium on Wednesday evening a few hours before the game on February 1, 2012.
According to the testimony of the survivors of what became known as the “Port Said Massacre,” the game began amid suspicious absence of security. Even the usual inspection procedures at the stadium entrance that check for guns, knifes, or explosions didn’t take place. The game ended with a victory for El Masry club vs Al Ahly 3-1. As soon as the game ended, the fans of El Masry, carrying knives, moved to the stands of Al Ahly’s fans and in less than one hour, 72 Al Ahly fans lost their lives—Anas was one of them.
Anas’ death was a tragedy, but what he wrote added to the sadness. On his Facebook wall he wrote, “I wish to be there after I die so I can see the eyes that will cry over me.”
The next day, February 2nd, 2012, his funeral was held at Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in Cairo. Hundreds attended—not only family and friends of Anas—but hundreds of Al Ahly fans as well as other Egyptians who didn’t know Anas. Anas’ photo was widely published on social media, with his bright smile, he was the youngest victim of this massacre.
Several years have passed, but Anas’s face remains in the memory of people during every anniversary Port Said Massacre as well as on the 3rd of November, his birthday. Not only remembered by his family and friends, but by many others like Al Ahly’s super star, former player and Africa’s best player for 4 years, Mohamed Aboutrika, wrote on his twitter on Anas’s birthday, “Today is the birthday of Anas Mohiuddin, the one with the charming smile, May you rest in the best place.”
The Egyptian court has investigated the massacre and after 5 years it gave its verdict, sentencing 10 defendants to the death penalty and 10-15 years imprisonment for 30 other defendants. ( To be checked)
http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/8/41675/Commemorating-Port-Said-Stadium-massacre