There’s a worldwide media attention, which we would like to double its effect by sending letters to whoever may concern during this crucial time, as Kareem needs our efforts more than any time else. Every bit of effort counts.

Our four-year struggle to release Kareem mounts this week, so we want to make sure that we knock every possible door. Hence, we’re calling for all the activists and bloggers out there to send 3 letters; one to the Egyptian government officials, the other to the Egyptian ambassador or consul in your country, and the third to the your local minister of foreign affairs.

Contacts of Egyptian officials and diplomats can be found here. Alternatively you can write to your local Egyptian Embassy which you’ll find their contact info here

Kareem’s life is in real danger, and the situation is horribly serious. So any kind of help counts to raise public and international media awareness.

A friend from Sweden has sent 2 letters, one to the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the other to the Egyptian Embassy in Sweden. Here is what Niklas Smith has sent to the Egyptian ambassador in the Kingdom of Sweden, as a great and a comprehensive example of what we’re calling you to do as soon as possible:

Her Excellency Samah Mohamed Sotohy Sarhan
The Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt

Egyptens ambassad
Box 14230
10440 Stockholm

cc. Carl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Sweden

11 November 2010

Your Excellency,

Your fellow citizen Mr Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment as a result of his writings on the Internet. His sentence has ended and he was due to be released from Borg Al-Arab Prison in Alexandria on Friday 5 November. However, I have heard through several media reports that he has not been released. Instead he has been taken to the Alexandria headquarters of State Security Intelligence. His lawyer told Al Jazeera that Mr Suleiman has still not been released and was beaten by a junior SSI officer on Tuesday night.

Regardless of the justice of Mr Suleiman’s original sentence, he has served his time in prison. I would like to ask for him to be released immediately, as his continued imprisonment is clearly illegal. Please contact the Minister of the Interior or the responsible official to ask for Mr Suleiman’s immediate release. And please also ask that his alleged mistreatment in SSI
headquarters be independently investigated.

I look forward to hearing that Mr Suleiman has been released and can start to rebuild his life
after spending almost one sixth of it behind bars.

Yours sincerely,
Niklas Smith

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Government repression no longer ignores bloggers

The Internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations. Several countries fell in the ranking this year because of serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.

In Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), for example, bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible. “We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship,” Reporters Without Borders said. “More and more governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media.”

At least 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country’s universities.

Read the full report here.