They were afraid of bad press, and that's why they arrested and basically tortured this guy. News flash: Torture is a bad method for turning around the news cycle.
Mr. Ghonim, an Egyptian who lives in Dubai with his wife and two children, was not well known outside of technology and business circles in Egypt. But his disappearance, followed by his interview Monday night on the same program where the Nobel laureate and diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei plunged into Egyptian politics a year ago, appeared to have quickly turned him into a national celebrity.
Mr. Ghonim, who came across as both humble and fearless, said he was grabbed by security police officers while getting into a taxi and then taken to a location where he was detained for 12 days, blindfolded the entire time. He said that he was deeply worried that his family did not know where he was. He said he was not physically harmed.
The first word of his release came when he posted this sentence in English on his Twitter account at 7:05 p.m.:
“Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it.”
