Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have issued the following press release on Kareem:

Reporters Without Borders deplores the way the authorities continue to persecute Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, a jailed blogger better known by the pen-name of Kareem Amer. For the third time in a row, one of his lawyers has been denied the right to visit him in Borg Al Arab prison although he had the required permits from the Alexandria attorney-general’s office.

The lawyer, Ahmed Omar, one of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information’s lawyer (ANHRI), was told on arrival at the prison on 10 January that the security services had imposed a permanent ban on visits for the blogger. The ANHRI filed a complaint with the Cairo prosecutor’s office in May 2009 after the first refusal, but no investigation was carried out.

Reporters Without Borders is very worried about the conditions in which Kareem Amer is being held and his physical and psychological health. Imprisoned since November 2006, he has had no contact with the outside world for the past eight months. Reporters Without Borders intends to request permission to visit him as soon as possible.

On 22 December, a court rejected a request for a retrial for Kareem Amer. Although all further possibilities of appeal have been exhausted, a petition for his release has been filed with an administrative court.

This is not the first time Kareem is forbidden visits by either his lawyers, journalists or his own friends.