Several friends of Kareem as well as his lawyers attempted to visit him recently but with no success. We are seriously concerned for his safety and demand that the Egyptian government intervenes by ensuring he is at least being treated decently with rights to see and communicate with visitors. We are unaware of whether or not latest letters from his supporters are reaching him, as several of them claim they’ve had no response despite previous communication with Kareem.

It’s bad enough that Egypt has insisted on keeping him imprisoned for the “crime” of practicing free speech on the internet, but the harsh treatment is unacceptable and will surely create further international outrage at the real crime, which is imprisoning and torturing an innocent blogger, a crime that the Egyptian government has refused to correct while toying with a young man’s life.