A presentation by FreeKareem.org was done at the re:publica ’09 event in Berlin. People had overwhelming support for Kareem, and many immediately wanted to know how they can help. Some are doing so by writing letters to either Kareem or the Egyptian government, others are spreading the word about Kareem’s imprisonment.
We appreciate everyone’s support, and thank them for coming to see the presentation and learning how they can help support the campaign.
Despite our efforts to gain their attention and support for Kareem in the past 2 years, the UN has been largely unresponsive. Two years later UN “experts” condemn Kareem’s imprisonment, but where was the UN 2 years ago when we needed them, and why did the UN continue to support and promote Egypt’s place in the Human Rights Council despite knowledge of Kareem’s arrest and other bloggers/activists like him?
From Amnesty:
Experts of the Human Rights Council have concluded that the Egyptian authorities have detained blogger Karim Amer arbitrarily for his online criticisms and for exercising his right to freedom of expression. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) communicated its decision to Amnesty International.
[...]
Karim Amer was sentence in 2007 to four years in prison for writing on his blog criticizing Egypt’s al-Azhar religious authorities and President Mubarak. Charges against him include “spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country’s reputation”, “incitement to hate Islam” and “defaming the President of the Republic”.
This is the video we created two years ago opposing Egypt’s inclusion in the Human Rights Council:
Twitter is very quickly emerging to be the primary tool for quick and effective communication across the world. It’s a great tool to use for awareness. The unfortunate thing about Twitter is that it’s so easy to get lost in the meaningless madness, where the majority give mindless updates on absolutely everything and anything that they do, that important tweets get overshadowed within seconds. This has made it harder for us to commit to Twitter and using it to help people learn more about Kareem and how they can keep by making others aware about his situation.
Now we finally have support in this with a service called Tweetizen, which allows you to create Twitter groups and will soon enable an embedding feature where you can embed it on the site, either as a widget or a page, which is great!
We have jumped at this early opportunity and created a group on Tweetizen where you can keep up with what people are saying about Kareem or the Free Kareem Campaign.
Here’s an example of what it looks like:
If you use Twitter, we hope that you will follow us @freekareem, and help by retweeting (RT) some of our posts.
Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, writes a letter to President Hosni Mubarak condemning the state’s oppression against bloggers, noting Kareem amongst those abused by the government for their blogging:
Dear Mr. President,
The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to protest the relentless campaign of persecution against Internet journalists and bloggers by Egypt’s various security services. Regrettably, the routine harassment and detention of bloggers, according to CPJ research, is only one element of an overall decline in press freedom in Egypt in recent years. In 2007, CPJ concluded that Egypt was among the 10 worst backsliders in terms of press freedom worldwide, due to a massive number of legal proceedings being launched against critical journalists. Since then, this trend has continued unabated with hundreds of lawsuits, criminal complaints, and summonses being issued against editors, reporters, bloggers, and free expression advocates.
[...]
CPJ research also shows that at least three bloggers remain in administrative detention, held without charge under the Emergency Law, or are serving prison sentences.
Abdel Karim Suleiman, widely known as Karim Amer, was arrested in November 2006 for writing critical articles about prominent religious figures and the president of the republic. He was convicted in February 2007 of insulting religion and the president, and is currently serving a four-year jail term for both charges. He is the only Egyptian blogger to ever be convicted for his online writings. Since then Amer has been mistreated in prison. In November 2007 he was severely beaten by another prisoner and a guard, according to his lawyer and to multiple local human rights groups. He was prevented from documenting his injuries in a medical report, local human rights organizations widely reported. In August 2008, he was prevented from leaving his cell and exercising in a courtyard like other prisoners. Around the same time, some of Amer’s books and other reading materials were arbitrarily confiscated. Lawyers at ANHRI told CPJ that they filed an appeal as soon as Amer was convicted, but that the authorities have failed to consider it two years into his four-year prison term. Legal experts in Egypt told CPJ that such appeals are usually processed within six months.
.. Kareem was officially sentenced to 4 years in prison, 2 of which he has already served. Throughout this time Kareem has been beaten, humiliated and harassed. But he remains strong, despite feeling frustrated and lonely. He has written several letters which we have published here, expressing his current state and also his appreciation of everyone around the world who continues to fight for his cause.
A recent article in Menassat has also featured news from his letters:
BEIRUT, February 19, 2009 (MENASSAT)- “Do you think that life outside prison will be better or do you think it will be more hell than here?” imprisoned blogger Kareem Amer asked “Wahda Masrya” in a letter a few days ago.
Wahda Masrya, moderator of the blog “An Egyptian girl” and a close friend of Amer, told MENASSAT that the dissident blogger currently feels “very lonely” and that he is in need of “moral support.”
The blogger has been in prison since 2006, and it appears to have taken a hard toll on him.
“Prison has become a part of my imagination. I don’t remember what life was like before my imprisonment and what people look like outside,” Amer wrote in his letter.
Wahda Masrya said Amer’s atheist views make it especially hard for him and that he fears for his safety after his release from Alexandria’s Borg Al-Arab prison.
“In his letter, I see that he is frustrated. He wrote that he is not sure if being out will be safer for him. He needs to be reassured that he will be safe, as he is considered an atheist.” Wahdamasryra told MENASSAT.
Read the rest of the article here.
To find out how you can help, please visit this page, or obtain the prison address from this page and help give Kareem moral support by sending him a letter encouraging his strength.
