Highlights:
- Video shows Kareem leaving court room; he was heard being hit in the prisoners’ vehicle. (Quick link)
- Extremist lawyer and others cheer as Kareem enters prisoner vehicle. (Quick link)
- Red beating marks on Kareem’s face. (Quick link) [EDIT: Cannot be verified]
- Remarks made by neighbor. (Quick link)
- Kareem’s father to security officers: Be harsh on Kareem. (Quick link)
- Remarks made by the public outside the court room. (Quick link)


Blogger ‘Ana 7orr’ (‘I am free’), who attended Kareem’s court verdict session, provides a video of Kareem leaving the court room and getting into the prisoners’ vehicle. You can hear him scream after getting hit:

The video is 16 seconds long. Kareem’s face flashes by during the first few seconds. As he is being escorted toward the prisoners’ truck, you can hear people shouting out in Arabic, “Allahu akbar wa li Allah al-hamd!” (English: “Allah is the greatest, and to Allah we praise!”.

This chorus was lead by extremist prosecuting lawyer Mohamed Dawoud, who in a previous court session told The Associated Press: “I am on a jihad here … If we leave the likes of him [Kareem] without punishment, it will be like a fire that consumes everything.” (A ‘fire’ like this one, I suppose).

At 00:09, Kareem disappears into the truck and gets out of sight, and you can then hear him getting hit, which is followed by a painful scream (as was previously confirmed by The Associated Press).

Ana 7orr also confirms noticing that, as Kareem left the court, his face was red with beating marks. [EDIT: Cannot be verified]

Please contact the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and inform them about this violation of human rights. Use the Human Rights Commission address reserved for urgent matters to e-mail them this video: tb-petitions@ohchr.org.

Ana 7orr gives other details and pictures on another blog post: remarks made by Kareem’s father (according to a neighbor of Kareem’s), accusations made against Kareem, and what people outside the court generally thought of the case. Below is a summary of the relevant portions of his post:

The man in the above picture is prosecuting lawyer Mohamed Dawoud, who called for waging jihad against ‘the likes of Kareem’ and lead the cheering chorus when Kareem was entering the prisoners’ vehicle.

The media seemed focused on the man pictured above, Yasser Metwalli, who said he was Kareem’s neighbor. He stated that he engaged in a 45-minute discussion with Kareem, but failed to convince Kareem to abandon his views.

Yasser accused Kareem of being “funded” by people outside the country, and that human rights organizations contributed to his “corruption”.

Yasser also said that Kareem’s father asked security forces to be harsh on him so he can back out of his thoughts. His father also accused human rights organizations that stood by Kareem of corrupting him. He told Yasser that Europeans are sympathizing with Kareem only because he insulted Islam, and that if what Kareem said were pro-Islamic, no one would have sympathized with him, referring to Wafa Constantine as an example of that.

Kareem’s father also proposed to solve such “problems” of “corruption” by blocking Internet Web sites as Saudi Arabia does.


There were people outside the court who said that Kareem committed a crime and that he deserved to face a criminal court, whereas others argued that Kareem’s case is an ideological one, and that the courtroom is not the appropriate place to handle it. This was the opinion of many of Kareem’s sympathizers. However, many of his former sympathizers turned back on supporting him after they read some of his articles on Islam.

Bloggers being interviewed by the media outside the court.

Members of the public engaging in fierce discussions over Kareem Amer and the verdict. Some extremists insisted that Islam has only one interpretation, and some even went as far as calling for executing and stoning Kareem.
(Photo/camera date set incorrectly)

Security officials wait for Kareem to be lead outside the courtroom after having the verdict read out to him.

A couple of other pictures found elsewhere shows Kareem being lead out of the courtroom:

Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil in a shirt reading in Arabic: ‘prisoner investigation’ is escorted from court in Alexandria. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

Escorted from court in Alexandria (Reuters)

Again, please contact the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Use the Human Rights Commission address reserved for urgent matters to e-mail them this video: tb-petitions@ohchr.org.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” – Edmund Burke

Share This

British television station Channel 4 reports on Kareem Amer’s imprisonment, and discusses the struggle between Arab bloggers and their leaders in the Middle East.

Warning: Disturbing scenes of tortured Egyptian prisoners is shown in this video.

(If Internet Explorer acts strangely and crashes, as has happened with myself, try watching with Mozilla Firefox.)

Click here to watch Channel 4 News: Egyptian Blogger Jailed

UPDATE: Now on YouTube as well:

Share This

An editorial in The Washington Post criticizes the Bush administration for tolerating the Egyptian government’s imprisonment of Kareem for blogging: Blogger on Ice (hat tip: Billy H.).

Blogger on Ice
Once again Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak shows zero tolerance for a secular democratic dissenter.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007; Page A18

THE BUSH administration has tolerated Egypt’s brutal crackdown on domestic dissent and the broader reversal of its democratic spring of 2005 in part because President Hosni Mubarak argues that his adversaries are dangerous Islamic extremists. It’s true that the largest opposition movement in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood; how dangerous it is can be debated. But what is overlooked is that Mr. Mubarak reserves his most relentless repression not for the Islamists — who hold a fifth of the seats in parliament — but for the secular democrats who fight for free elections, a free press, rights for women and religious tolerance.

The latest case in point is a blogger named Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman, who was sentenced to four years in prison last week on charges of religious incitement, disrupting public order and “insulting the president.” A brave and provocative 22-year-old student, Mr. Soliman first achieved notice with postings that denounced riots in Alexandria directed at Egypt’s Christian Copt minority. He said the brutality he witnessed was the result of extremist Islamic teachings, in part by his own university, Al-Azhar, which he called “the other face of al-Qaeda.” He compared the prophet Muhammad to Israel’s Ariel Sharon. And he said Mr. Mubarak was a “symbol of tyranny

Setting aside the hyperbole, there was considerable truth in many of the blogger’s charges. Right or wrong, he certainly would seem to deserve the same freedom of speech as Egypt’s government-owned newspapers, which regularly publish vile anti-Semitic screeds. But Mr. Soliman was one of several Egyptian bloggers arrested last year. While others were released after being beaten — and in one case, raped — by police, Mr. Soliman was brought to trial by Mr. Mubarak’s prosecutors in what seemed a clear attempt to freeze what had been a growing space for free expression.

“This verdict sets a legal precedent for prosecuting someone for what they write on the Internet, on charges that are not easily defined or defended against,” wrote another Egyptian blogger known as Sandmonkey. “This could be used to prosecute any blogger the government feels like punishing and serves as a huge blow to freedom of speech in Egypt.”

As a political prisoner, Mr. Soliman will join Ayman Nour, who was sentenced a year ago on fabricated charges after he ran for president against Mr. Mubarak on a liberal democratic platform. As many as 800 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have also been jailed in the past year. This by a government that continues to be one of the largest recipients in the world of U.S. aid, collecting more than $2 billion a year. What do American subsidies support? Not least, the elimination of what would otherwise be the strongest secular democratic movement in the Arab Middle East.

Previously by The Washington Post: The ‘Crime’ Of Blogging In Egypt

Share This

This essay was originally published by Kareem Amer on his blog before his arrest. It has been translated by the Free Kareem Coalition: There Is No Deity but the Human Being.

(You can also download it in PDF format here.)

Monday, September 11, 2006

There Is No Deity but the Human Being

Is it logical for “restrictions” on “freedom” to exist? This inquiry comes to my mind whenever I find some advocates of liberalism in the Middle East contradicting themselves so they can avoid clashing with societal thoughts, and so they can attract people to their ranks without giving the slightest consideration of the absolute meaning of the principles that they call for. These principles, of course, contradict with the principles of the society and its inherited tenets.

Freedom, as I learned it, understood it, and believed in it, is the removal of all restrictions from the human being’s burden. Slavery, which is its antithesis, means the submission of the human being by imposing some restrictions on his life for the purpose of controlling him. Where restrictions are found, freedom disappears, and where freedom is found, the restrictions fall. This is obvious and does not require practical evidence, and it is illogical to object to it on the grounds that societal principles or religious beliefs must be taken into account. Either absolute freedom is our goal, or we be honest with ourselves and declare our hatred and rejection of it, and declare our preference to surrendering to restrictions over having freedom handed to us.

Freedom’s denial of restrictions does not mean that the human being has the complete freedom to do everything he is able to do. Being powerful does not mean that I am free to subjugate he who is less powerful than I am. For one of the most important principles of freedom is to not trespass on the limits of others’ freedoms; this is so that freedom will be meaningful, and not be merely a justification for the actions of those who take advantage of their power to subdue others. Freedom – coupled with responsibility – is a right for all human beings with no distinction, and in order to have this right implemented in a realistic picture, every individual must respect the freedom of others and not degrade it. The law is what organizes this matter, and prevents individuals from trespassing on each other in the name of freedom.

Which brings up an important point: The fundamental function of the law is to organize the relationships of individuals with each other within the society, and to protect their freedoms from being exploited or degraded. Do lawmakers have a right to impose on
others – on the freedoms of human beings – additional restrictions that have nothing to do with avoiding the trespassing of some individuals on the freedoms of others?!

For example: Does the law have the right to criminalize an individual’s action whose effect does not trespass the private life of his fellow man? And is it justifiable to impose on the citizen obligations, on the grounds of submission to the law, that in effect degrade his personal freedom? I think that this matter is not within the function that laws were created for, and hence, this is considered a departure of the law from the framework that was placed for it, and that is the protection of the freedoms of the individuals. And with that, it transforms from a tool of preserving individual freedoms to a new restriction on it, which has no benefit apart from subjugating the individuals for the sake of a new societal organization that sanctifies the law more than its sanctification of the individual (the deity).

The arrival of the individual preceded the formation of the societal organization, and this formation is what founded the law. And as is known, one of the most important functions that this organization was formed for is the protection of the rights of the individuals from degradation under the protection of the law. Therefore, it is the individual, whose arrival had preceded these legislations, who must enjoy sanctity and respect, and not the law (the follower), which is supposed to protect the rights of the individuals, not degrade these rights.

Regardless of whether this law is a custom, a religious legislation, or positivistic, it cannot, under any circumstances, be placed above human beings, and it cannot be pressed on them, on their desires, or on their wills in life. Laws are nothing but deaf, rigid provisions, whereas the human being is a mass of live emotions which we have no right to press on it this deaf entity, and we have no right to submit him through its provisions.

Verily, we must return to the beginning and define the function of the law in our lives. And before that, we must convince the human being of his individual sanctity, and that nothing surpasses him in importance and standing besides himself. Following that, the law is a follower, protector, and organizer of his life. It is not a tool of suppression with which whoever is behind it aims to create a new deity the human being will prostrate to and sanctify.

Original (Arabic) text:

Share This

Layla Gonzalez, a political freelance writer and the founder of The Hill Chronicles, will be hosting our New York City Coordinator, Constantino Diaz-Duran, tomorrow on her 60-minute radio show.

We encourage you all to tune in. They will be discussing the fate of Kareem Amer, and Layla will also be taking phone calls: (646) 652-4659

When: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 @ 11:00 AM EST (4 PM GMT)

Where: BlowOut with Constantino Diaz-Duran - Free Kareem Jailed Egyptian Blogger

UPDATE (Feb 28, 2007):

You can listen to the show here:

We thank Layla and Constantino for the wonderful show! We are expecting Constantino to be on Layla’s show again in about 6-8 weeks.

Share This

In addition to her wonderful article on the Daily News of Los Angeles today, nation/world news columnist Bridget Johnson lists several suggestions on how you can help Kareem, and publishes an open letter to the Egyptian Ambassador to the US:

Suggestions:

• Visit FreeKareem.org. Download the image on the rail and link to the campaign off your own blog or Web site. (As a testament to the thirst for free speech, you’ll see in this post that the creators of the campaign are Muslims who disagreed with what Kareem wrote.)

• Sign the petition for Kareem’s release.

• Sign a petition in Arabic!

• Reporters Without Borders states that Egypt is bucking to host a stage of the United Nations-sponsored Internet Governance Forum in 2009 (ironically, the country is on the group’s list of 13 Internet enemies). Lobby against Egypt’s inclusion in this event by contacting Nitin Desai, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Internet Governance, at igf@unog.ch. (Mailing address and phone/fax numbers here.)

• Contact the Egyptian Embassy in D.C. to lobby for Kareem: embassy@egyptembdc.org; (202) 895 5400.

• Lobby the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The AP reported that “seconds after he was loaded into the truck and the door closed, an Associated Press reporter heard the sound of a slap from inside the vehicle and a shriek of pain from Nabil.” So use the Human Rights Commission address reserved for urgent matters: tb-petitions@ohchr.org.

Open Letter to Egyptian Ambassador: C’mon, Ambassador, help Kareem!

Ambassador Fahmy,

It is said that Egypt is the cradle of civilization. However, as a young blogger has just been imprisoned in Alexandria for exercising his God-given right of free expression, the world is looking on and wondering just how civilized Egypt, circa 2007, is.

Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, better known by his Internet pseudonym Kareem Amer, simply did what millions of bloggers around the world do every day: Tell us what they see in their corner of the globe. As every man and woman is unique, our interpretations of and opinions on our observations vary widely. Where one person sees salvation, another may see oppression; where one sees goodness, another may see deception. These opinions that are as different as night and day flood the World Wide Web by the minute, weaving a rich tapestry of expression that comprises the face of humanity.

The crimes for which Kareem sits in prison are insulting Islam and insulting President Hosni Mubarek. On his blog, Kareem expressed his wish to become a human-rights lawyer and help Muslim and Arab women battle discrimination. He also denounced what he saw as extremism at his university, opposed what he saw as political repression and decried violence against Coptic Christians. For this, his family has disowned him and his father sought to have him punished under Sharia law.

Let me bring your attention to something else of which the world is standing up and taking notice: The grass-roots coalition to free Kareem consists of many Muslims who disapprove or are even disgusted by the writings of Kareem, but believe so strongly in the inherent right to free expression that they have vociferously taken up the cause. As Voltaire wrote in a 1770 letter, “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”

Egypt should be proud to call such courageous and principled young people its own. Unfortunately, bloggers there must now have to live in fear of facing the same fate as Kareem. You can show the world that Egypt is a modern society where no writer has to live in fear by freeing Kareem now. All the world currently sees is a climate of extremism, where a prosecutor tells the Associated Press that he is “on a jihad” to punish this young man as harshly as possible. You can show the world that instead Egypt will embrace moderation and mercy by telling a young man that he will not have to sit in a cell for four years on account of his beliefs.

By letting Kareem go and vowing to punish no more bloggers on such charges, you will show the world that Egypt still can be the cradle of civilized society.

Thank you for your consideration of this request to work for the pardon of Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman.

Thank you, Bridget Johnson, for helping Kareem and all those who yearn to speak their minds but cannot.

Share This

Thanks to Bridget Johnson, a nation/world news columnist at the Daily News of Los Angeles: Imperiled bloggers best hope for free speech in Arab world.

An excerpt:

Back during the Muhammad cartoons controversy, Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit spearheaded the country’s mediation role, urging Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to not prosecute Jyllands-Posten but issue “an official Danish statement underlining the need for and the obligation of respecting all religions.”

When the religious controversy happened in their own nation, though, the Egyptians were more than happy to prosecute, showing little respect for a secularist who voiced disagreement with tenets of the Islamic society.

Egyptian blogger and 22-year-old student Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, who wrote online under the pseudonym “Kareem Amer,” was sentenced to four years in prison last week for “inciting hatred of Islam” and criticizing President Hosni Mubarek. Ironically, this is the same president who three years ago promised to reform the system that punishes journalists for their work.

Prosecutor Mohammed Dawoud accused Kareem of being an “apostate” who “has hurt every Muslim across the world,” reportedly telling The Associated Press, “I want him to get the toughest punishment. I am on a jihad here … If we leave the likes of him without punishment, it will be like a fire that consumes everything.”

The blaze of which he complains consisted of Kareem’s views against what he saw as unchecked radical Islam. Kareem, who wrote of the desire to become a human-rights lawyer to help women in Arabic societies, decried extremism being taught at his university and harshly criticized Muslim attacks on the Coptic Christian population.

The Web site FreeKareem.org was set up by many Muslims who were personally offended by Kareem’s writings but felt they must stand up for free expression.

“You may be disgusted at what he said, even angered,” wrote the campaign founders in a recent post. “That’s okay, so are we! But we will defend with all our might his right to express such opinions, because it is his basic human right that none of you have the right to … take away.”

Kareem’s imprisonment will not be the last, unless the freedom-loving global community takes a stand and says, “We’re not willing to live like that!”

So what action should be taken? First, Egypt is bucking to host a stage of the United Nations-sponsored Internet Governance Forum in 2009. Unless Kareem is freed and press rights guaranteed, the U.N. should thumb its nose at Egypt’s inclusion.

Everyone should also send a letter protesting Kareem’s imprisonment to the Egyptian Embassy, embassy@egyptembdc.org, and the White House should lobby directly to Mubarek on Kareem’s behalf. And, last but not least, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights should immediately get involved to free Kareem - perhaps this sketchy U.N. body can finally earn its keep.

True democracy in the Arab world starts with these brave bloggers. Turn our backs on Kareem, and we turn our backs on everything for which we’ve been fighting.

Read it all here.

Thank you Bridget!

Share This

At the International Herald Tribune: Egyptian blogger’s lawyers appeal his 4 years prison sentence (hat tip: Renée).

Important note: The appeal can only decrease Kareem Amer’s sentence term. Even if he wins the appeal, he will not be immediately released.

Egyptian blogger’s lawyers appeal his 4 years prison sentence

The Associated Press
Published: February 26, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt: Lawyers for an Egyptian blogger convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egypt’s president filed an appeal Monday.

Abdel Kareem Nabil, a former student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, had been a vocal secularist and sharp critic of conservative Muslims in his blog. He often lashed out at Al-Azhar — the most prominent religious center in Sunni Islam — calling it “the university of terrorism” and accusing it of encouraging extremism.

One of Nabil’s lawyers Rawda Ahmed said an appeal was filed Monday and a court hearing was set for March 12.

A criminal court in Alexandria, Nabil’s hometown, has issued its four year’s verdict on Thursday. The conviction has brought a flood of condemnations from international and Egyptian human rights groups, as well as from fellow bloggers [Thank you —ed.]. Washington also has said it was concerned about the verdict and sentence.

But Egyptian authorities have staunchly defended the court’s decision.

“No one, no matter who he might be, has the right to interfere with Egyptian legal matters or comments on Egypt’s decisions,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement on Friday.

Judge Ayman al-Akazi sentenced Nabil, 22, to three years in prison for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and inciting sectarian strife and another year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak.

Nabil, who has called himself a secular Muslim, did not react as the verdict was read. His religious family didn’t attend any of the trial sessions.

Egypt, a top U.S. ally in the Mideast, arrested a number of bloggers last year, most of them for connections to the pro-democracy reform movement. Nabil was put on trial while other bloggers were freed — a sign of the sensitivity of his writings on religion.

Nabil, who used the blogger name Kareem Amer, was an unusually scathing critic of conservative Muslims. His frequent attacks on Al-Azhar, where he was a law student, led the university to expel him in March, then push prosecutors to bring him to trial.

Share This

Much thanks to our treasurer, Chris Kilmer, we managed to launch a Free Kareem store. This store is a great way to help spread awareness on Kareem’s case. We’ll add more products soon, but for now, please check it out and help out by financially supporting the Free Kareem campaign. If you would not like a product, but still want to support this campaign financially, you may donate to our cause through PayPal (located on our sidebar.)

Free Kareem Store.

Sample shirts:

Share This

Due to an unexpected power outage from our host, this website has been down for the last couple of hours and we apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. We are now back up and running, hopefully without facing any technical problems in the future. Please come back for more information regarding Kareem. We welcome any suggestions you may have to help strengthen our campaign.

Share This