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Emboldened by continuous mobilizations since late 2000, we decided to break a HUGE taboo by organizing a protest in Lazoughly Square, right in front of the Ministry of Interior HQ (that housed the notorious State Security Police central office, where I was held and tortured in October 2000).
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The square, till then, had been a forbidden zone. On the International Day for the Solidarity with Victims of Torture, the activists stormed the square and regrouped to chant against Mubarak, his interior minister Habib el-Adly, the State Security Police, and torturers. Brief scuffles took place with the Central Security Forces, but the day passed without casualties, and it was another space taken by force, resistance, and pressures from below on the long road to 2011.