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Hassan Mostafa maybe isn't one of the famous political activists you'd recognize from TV.
But if you went to the Sidi Gaber station in Alexandria and asked the street vendors about Hassan Mostafa,
everyone will know who he is.
At a protest or demonstration, or when we go to support detainees,
his presence is very encouraging. We feel we're showing our support and doing the right thing.
Whenever Hassan hears about injustice somewhere, he can't just sit at home.
He has to go see what's going on and try to help.
He always says, that brain God gave us--we have to use it.
Hassan Mostafa is one of the first people who started the protest movement for Khalid Said.
He was the first person to call for a demonstration in front of the Sidi Gaber police station.
He found out that the officers accused in the Khalid Said case were being smuggled out of the station.
He heart about Khalid Said and went to find out the truth.
He talked to people in the neighborhood, those who were there and saw what happened.
The police wanted to fabricate any charge against against Khalid Said.
In order to cover up for the policemen who beat him to death.
So of course he exposed them and organized several protests against the police.
You'll find him with the street vendors and the microbus drivers.
If there's a strike you'll find him with the factory workers and the people in the street.
You'll find him with the families of the detainees and the martyrs.
He used to go to the protests against the emergency law and hereditary succession.
That Sunday he was out and there's a State Security building near us.
He found out they were shredding and smuggling out a lot of documents.
Over in that building, the criminals who used to torture us are still inside, hiding.
I can't believe the army's position on this. I can't believe these people haven't been arrested yet.
We know some of the officers in there.
We've seen them before. They tortured us and we know them by name.
They're still inside, we can see them from the roofs of the houses. They're right front of us.
How is it that no charges have been filed against those criminals?
They tortured and killed Egyptians, how can they still be there? How is that allowed?
We're not leaving until those criminals and killers are arrested.
He told them that State Security was hiding some of its documents and loading them into a vehicle.
He followed the vehicle.
The vehicle was filled with documents and he followed it.
The people in the vehicle realized he wasn't going to go away, so they started shooting at him.
Most or all of the security directors in Alexandria know Hassan.
We filed a case in the assassination attempt against him in which he named specific officers.
In subsequent events, we filed charges against the Security Director and the Head of Investigations.
We filed cases with the Public Prosecution on all of these incidents.
So it started to be a matter of revenge between the MOI officers and Hassan.
In October 2010, Hassan went to inquire about someone who'd been kidnapped by State Security.
An officer claimed Hassan assaulted him in the courthouse.
This was the Assistant Prosecutor, Ahmed Darwish.
The current case
The day he was arrested, he'd gone to support the detainees.
He wasn't at the demonstration in front of the court the day before.
But he'd decided to go defend people. He knew they were being falsely accused or otherwise mistreated.
We were sitting in the office of the Public Prosecution to file a case for the children who were kidnapped.
Suddenly, in a corridor on the second floor of the Court Complex in Manshiya,
there was a heavy presence of Central Security forces in front of the Public Prosecutor's office.
They were trying to take Hassan.
After that, we found out that Hassan Mostafa had been charged in three cases.
First, inciting the events of 20 January [in Alexandria], a day when he was actually in Cairo.
Second, assaulting an officer on 15 January, even though he wasn't at most of the demonstration.
Third, for assaulting Ahmed Darwish, the Deputy Public Prosecutor.
This one was prosecuted as quickly as possible,
I found out they'd detained him, this was during that period from 20 January and afterward.
They were targeting activists during this period, and many people were killed.
I said, thank God, my son was imprisoned--he wasn't killed.
Within two months he was transferred from preventive detention and was sentenced to two years in prison.
They arrested him on 21 January and we have an appeal hearing on 13 April.
After all the oppression we've seen, there's no way he's going to give up.
He'll still defend the peaceful protestors who demonstrate against oppression.
We thought that the Muslim Brotherhood would stop the oppression of the people.
But in reality they're more oppressive and more hypocritical.
Support Hassan on Saturday, 13 April, before the Burg Al-Arab Courthouse.
Freedom for Hassan Mostafa
Subtitles by the Amara.org community