The pro-democracy movement was buoyed this week with the release of one of the most high-profile detained protesters, Google executive Wael Ghonim, after 12 days behind bars. Ghonim helped run a Facebook page used to organize the initial protests. Speaking to CNN, Ghonim said the regime’s crackdown has closed the door on negotiations.

Wael Ghonim: “This is no longer the time to negotiate, unfortunately. We went on the street on [the] 25th, and we wanted to negotiate. We wanted to talk to our government. We were knocking [on] the door. They decided to negotiate with us at night with rubber bullets, with police sticks, with water hoses, with tear gas — thanks — and with arresting about 500 people of us. Thanks. You know, we got the message. Now, when we escalated this and it became really big, they started listening to us.”