A mutual friend who blogs at Wa7damasrya visited Kareem yesterday.

She writes (translation):

Finally I managed to visit Kareem Amer (or Abdul Kareem Nabil) in Burj Al Arab prison which is about 20km far from Alexandria. I was there by 9 AM and I was done with the visit at 4 PM, and I wasn’t able to sit with Kareem and talk to him for more than 30 minutes.

[...]

It goes without a doubt that I’m happy to have successfully visited him, especially today since it’s his birthday.

She expresses her irritation with the over-zealous prison guards and says that this was a hard but a necessary experience for her:

It was a horrible experience for me and I couldn’t stop thinking that it was hard for me to be there for few hours. I don’t know how Kareem can manage there for more than 6 months already.

She also notes that Kareem is apparently being mistreated by prison guards:

He told me that last time at the court, a policeman beat him hard and filmed it with his mobile. A few days later, he [Kareem] sent a letter to his lawyer (Gamal Eid) asking him to publish a part of the story in a newspaper. The prison administration woke him up at 2 am to investigate him on what was published on that newspaper. They left him standing for 3 hours – from 5 AM to 8 AM. Then those guys in plain clothes were there with sticks of wood beating prisoners to go back to their cells.

In her e-mail to us, Shahi writes:

I told Kareem that the Free Kareem campaign people are doing a good job for him and that they are increasing pressure on the Egyptian regime. I told him that this pressure is very important.

She also shares our concern that Kareem may not be receiving all of the letters sent to him. It’s possible that his own letters aren’t successfully reaching us either.

Perhaps the highlight of her visit is the following explanation she provides:

He is fine but of course not happy and he has great hope in us who are outside to help him get his freedom again, he really wants that and depends on us for it.

We are Kareem’s only hope for freedom. We hope that his worldwide supporters realize this and will continue to put their efforts in him knowing this:

I left Kareem telling him to be strong and to know that we are all here for him.

On a final note, thank you Shahi for being such a great friend and for contacting us regarding your visit to Kareem. It means a lot that despite how troubling it is to meet him, you did it anyways and are still willing to do it again. This is the kind of support that Kareem really needs.