On Wednesday, March 18, Omid Reza Mirsayafi became the first blogger to die at the hands of a prison authority. In the wake of Omid’s passing we read with interest a great deal of coverage of the circumstances surrounding his death. One in particular, an essay of remembrance by someone who knew him, was of particular note. However, one statement in the piece brought us up short.

Omid had asked the author to help attract attention to his case. The author consulted with friends who had, she said, more experience with such situations. Those friends counseled against attracting attention to Omid, advising that it would hurt him in the end. The author took that advice.

Anyone who has taken part in free speech activities on behalf of the imprisoned sooner or later, usually sooner, is given just this sort of counsel. Without fail, it comes from those inside larger human rights or governmental organizations and it is hard not to take seriously. After all, these organizations have money, expertise and case officers. Surely they must be correct. We have to confess, however, that when we were first given this counsel, it rubbed us the wrong way, so we spoke with a number of people we knew who had been inside the interrogation rooms and jail cells, people who had previous been where Omid was. And to a person, they said: The more attention, the more coverage, the more pressure, the better.

We subsequently launched Free Mojtaba and Arash Day, the first time the blogosphere had been used to raise awareness of unjust imprisonment of bloggers on a global level. It led to an enormous uptick in awareness of the issue in general and of these two Iranian bloggers specifically. Free Mojtaba and Arash Day was in the top five “memes,” or online topics, that year.

Harassment is the ground state of these places, these interrogation rooms, prison cells and torture chambers, not a result of attention. In fact, that is exactly what the villains who perpetrate these obscenities want you to think.

At the Committee to Protect Bloggers, we have occasionally been contacted by people who knew they were going to have to go in for interrogation and possible arrest. One of them was the Syrian poet and novelist, Ammar Abdulhamid, who has since left Syria to take up a position in Washington, D.C. as a non-resident fellow at the Saban Institute of the Brookings Institution.

“In times of trouble, activists and their families are often told to shy away from publicizing their ordeal,” said Abdulhamid. “They are advised that this is indeed the best way to make it short and to navigate back to safety. In my case, however, international attention eased my way to freedom. Without it, I might not even be alive today. Still, there are no hard-fast rules here, and the best thing that international supporters and sympathizers can do is to follow the wishes of the (effected person), when they can be reached, or the wishes of their family members and/or friends.“

At Free Kareem we have focused on one man as an example of all, Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, also known as Kareem Amer, who, two years ago, was sentenced to four years in prison for critical writing that he posted on his blog.

Kareem Amer occasionally writes letters to a fellow blogger and good friend of ours, noting that the international support is one of the few things that kept him hopeful and sane in these tough times. Every time we received bad news about his case, we rallied hard and we were loud in the media. Shortly after each rally or letter campaign we receive positive remarks about Kareem’s situation, specifically after he has been tortured. So how can we assume that it doesn’t make a difference or that such efforts create a negative one?

We are not claiming that we’re responsible for all positive events that have occurred for Kareem, but we do not want to know where Kareem would be if it were not for the recognition and worldwide support that this campaign helped give him. We are very consistent with our efforts for Kareem and for this reason we know that the Egyptian government is threatened by it, as they have implied many times. We work hard because it apparently makes a great difference for our friend. Many people have asked us to stop. We never did, and Kareem himself wrote to us expressing his gratitude for that. Nothing else is more encouraging and reassuring than his own words asking us to continue for his sake and those like him.

Getting light and attention focused on persecuted bloggers is not like building a grand piano. It’s a simple, if demanding, task. Those who who tell us we must not agitate or the men and women we are trying to protect will be hurt wind up as accidental advocates for the torturers. All that matters is that we listen only to our brothers and sisters inside. If they, or their families, say we need to ease up, then we do. But that has happened to the two of us a collective grand total of one time.

Torturers torture because they love torturing. They do not do it for a reason. And they are far more likely to be stopped by their masters when their masters are in the cross-hairs than when they are left to operate in the dark.

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”.

Read full release.

This is the video we created two years ago opposing Egypt’s inclusion in the Human Rights Council:

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.

Read the full letter here.

.. 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.

Reporters Without Borders notes that:

A court in Al Zohor (west of Cairo) fined blogger Tamer Mabrouk (http://elhakika.blogspot.com) 2,500 Egyptian pounds (340 euros) on 20 January for allegedly libelling an Egyptian company, Trust Chemicals, in a blog entry accusing it of dumping hazardous waste in Lake Manzalah and the Suez Canal. The company filed its lawsuit last June.

[...]

Mabrouk’s lawyer, Rawda Ahmed, said it was the first time an Egyptian blogger had been sued by a private company over a blog entry.

Rawda is also Kareem’s lawyer. Kareem is still serving his 4 year prison sentence, which he received merely because of his blog posts.

Please continue fighting for Kareem’s cause. Contact us to see how you can help, or read this page.

WordPress is arguably the most celebrated blogging platform with millions of people using it around the world. We did not hesitate to use it as the platform of choice for both this blog and the plugin/widget described below.

The Plugin:
A plugin is a feature that extends the capabilities of WordPress. In this case, the Free Kareem plugin gives you the ability to promote Kareem’s cause through a simple widget, which you can conviniently place anywhere on your sidebar. Download it here [Instructions.]

What it looks like:

♦ These social networking buttons will lead to Free Kareem’s Facebook and MySpace pages as well as the campaign’s YouTube and Twitter accounts. This is because not many people knew we existed on these platforms and may choose to stay in touch with us there as opposed to only this site.

♦ The “Tell a Friend” button leads you to a page where you can spread the cause via email to others.

♦ In the very near future, you will be able to do the following:

Why:
Kareem has already spent 2 years of his life in prison. Now the media treats this as “old news” for the most part. We need to make sure that Kareem’s case remains prominent. Bloggers around the world can help us achieve that by downloading this plugin.

The Author:
Michael Torbert is ranked as the #1 WordPress Plugin Developer for 2008 (based on the total number of downloads of several of his plugins), making him an easy choice for us when we wanted to include the professional involvement of a WordPress developer. Michael supported our cause immediately and we sincerely thank him for his hard work with us.

The Future:
This plugin will continue being developed further depending on the feedback we receive. We are already working on some great additional features such as pictures, ability to exclude certain aspects of the widget, ability to include an RSS feed from FreeKareem.org, and generally making it as customizable as possible. But while we do that we need some help getting the word out on this plugin!

Open Source:
Like most WordPress plugins, the files are completely open source and anyone can build upon and improve this work, and if you do, please e-mail us and let us know so we can feature your work as well.

DOWNLOAD!
You can download this plugin from WordPress.org. It supports many versions of WordPress and works with any theme!

In a recent article featured in the Daily News Egypt, Kareem’s case is highlighted as a prominent example of Egypt’s increasing intolerance for freedom of speech:

February 2008 marked the first anniversary of the imprisonment of Kareem Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to be sentenced for his online writing. Amer’s jailing foresaw the trend described by CPJ in its annual census of journalists in prison, issued this month.

For the first time in CPJ’s prison census, online journalists represented the largest category (45 percent) of imprisoned media workers. CPJ attributes this to the “rising influence of online reporting and commentary.”

Many other examples are listed in this extensive article detailing Egypt’s punishment for anyone who dares to practice their basic right to free speech.

Despite over 2 years of worldwide protest, Egypt has yet to justify Kareem’s imprisonment with actual logic.

In celebration of Human Rights Day, Al Jazeera is currently holding a discussion on human rights violations in the Arab world, with an emphasis on Egypt.

In the report that accompanied the discussion, Kareem was quoted as an example of a young person unjustly imprisoned for his opinions, and FreeKareem.org was featured.

We are in the process of tracking the video of this. Once we find it, we will share it here.