Human Rights First has launched a letter campaign for you to request the release of 3 detained bloggers/activists. The letter will be aimed at the Foreign Minister’s recent visit to New York in order to represent Egypt in the United Nations General Assembly, despite the fact that Egypt clearly doesn’t believe in free speech or human rights. Please take a moment to get involved:

This week an Egyptian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit arrived in New York City to participate in the United Nations General Assembly. Even as these officials speak on behalf of their country, the Egyptian government continues its assault on free expression.

At this moment, three bloggers in detention are:

Mosaad Suleiman Hassan (better known by his pen name Mosaad Abu Fajr), novelist and activist from the northern Sinai, detained since December 26, 2007;

Mohamed Refaat, a 22-year-old student at Cairo University, arrested on July 21, 2008, whose detention continues under Emergency Laws. He faces accusations that include incitement of a strike;

Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman (a.k.a. “Kareem Amer”), a 23-year-old former student at Al-Azhar University currently serving a four-year sentence for views he expressed on his blog.

This year Egyptian authorities have arrested, detained, and prosecuted at least 20 bloggers, journalists, and activists. Using broadly-worded laws that criminalize insulting the president or religion, or harming Egypt’s reputation, and relying on Emergency Laws to justify prolonged detention, the government has clamped down on one of the most basic rights-the right to free expression.

Please call on the Egyptian authorities to release the bloggers currently detained and stop using vague, overly-broad laws to repress free speech.

The message to release these innocent detained individuals will be directed to:

Take action here.

Kareem has been arrested since November 6th, 2006. He is about to spend his 600th day in prison! We are planning an event for this day and hope that you will all be involved.

Here are the details.

Date: Saturday, the 28th of June
Occasion: Day 600 for Kareem in prison!
Theme: Increase awareness for Kareem in prison, and get in touch with him!

How you can get involved:

On the 28th, dedicate a post on your blog/website to Kareem.

You can do this in two ways:

Option 1: Write a post/letter directly to or about Kareem. Make people aware of what Kareem is going through. Express your opinions or concerns over the fact that he is still in prison just for sharing his personal views on radical Islam, extremism within Al Azhar, and the president of Egypt.

Option 2: Write about something controversial, fearlessly, the same way as Kareem did (whether be it about free speech, human rights, religious freedom, political rights, et al) and then dedicate this post to him.

You may also choose to directly write to Kareem using the following address:

Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
The Arab Republic of Egypt

Please attach the Arabic address on your letter:

On Monday, April 21, was the official deadline for our letter campaign “Flood the Jail with Mail“. So far, we had about 60 confirmed letters from around the world, but we are assured that it’s not over - some people are getting ready to hold small events where they collect letters for Kareem, so they can send them all together in a big envelope. Our aim is to collect at least 30 letters per event.

People have sent Kareem letters, postcards, pictures, books, etc. We are hoping that he will write back confirming to us that he received all these letters, or at least most of them. But even if the campaign is over now you can continue writing to Kareem. He is always happy to receive letters from his friends and supporters.

We also have in mind to create another campaign of this sort during the end of the summer in August, and in between, we’d have other kinds of campaigns to keep people aware of Kareem. If anyone wants to help out, they should contact editor@freekareem.org and we’d be happy to accept any suggestions or help.

In our previous post, we wrote that the most recent “The World” podcast will feature a discussion about the “Flood the Jail with Mail” campaign which is co-organized by the wonderful and hard working Committee to Protect Bloggers (CPB) This podcast features the director of the Free Kareem Coalition (myself), Curt from CPB, and Elijah Zarwan, a Cairo-based human rights researcher.

You can now listen to the short 4 minute talk here. [MP3]

BBC’s “The World” is going to feature a new podcast concerning the upcoming 2-week long letter campaign for Kareem, detailed by Curt from the Committee to Protect Bloggers here.

Curt and I (Esra’a) will be discussing the Flood the Jail with Mail campaign [click here for info] which goes live on Monday, April 7th. We encourage everyone to get involved!

Visit the website and make sure you listen to Friday’s show to learn more about the campaign and Kareem’s situation in general.

We are happy to announce the launch of a joint mail campaign in support of Kareem together with the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

From April 7 through April 21, both organizations are encouraging their readers to go analogue and write Kareem a letter or postcard.

There are several reasons for another analogue campaign:

First, we’ve organized demonstrations and public outreach events all over the world but nothing that targets Kareem directly. It is time for a campaign that focuses on him in personal way! He really enjoys letters and they make a difference to him, as he has stated before. Second, a sufficient amount of such mail will remind Egyptian authorities that Kareem, bloggers in general and prisoners of conscience over all, are not alone. Remember, when Kareem was being tortured several months ago, the focus of international media was instrumental in stopping it. And finally, this campaign means an opportunity for us to really do something directly for Kareem.

We have asked you to write to Kareem before, and by all means continue it! But now we are especially asking you to send him at least one letter between April 7 and April 21. During this period, let’s “flood the jail with mail”!

Below you find the address in English, followed by a picture of it in Arabic. It goes without saying that both versions (if you are writing from a non-Arabic country) must be on the mail to assure that it gets delivered.

Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt

Kareem’s address in Arabic (mandatory to be included on the envelope)

Please also have a look at Alexandra Sandels’ article about this campaign at Menassat, which includes statements by Esra’a and Wa7damasrya as well as some background information.

If you need more information about the “Flood the Jail with Mail” campaign, please feel free to contact us.

Photographer’s caption:

Shahinaz encouraged everyone in the group to write letter to Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman, the blogger who was jailed last year for insulting Islam and President Mubarak, and facilitated matters by providing stamped envelopes.

Please follow this lead and write a letter to Kareem this week.

Mutual friend Shahinaz received a letter from Kareem, noting:

I just got a letter from Kareem Amer, the envelope was already open, of course they read every single word Kareem is writing but anyway his letter reached me which is the important thing.

Kareem is fine AlhamedLallah (thank God) , I want to thank all the people who sent him letters in his prison supporting him, Kareem said that he got about 6 letters from all over the world.

So keep doing a good job and support him. Kareem says a special hi to all the bloggers and supporters.

We would like thank everyone who took the time to send him letters. You really helped to keep Kareem hopeful and in high spirits.

If you didn’t send Kareem a letter yet, please do so! It’s really making him hang in there during such a difficult time. His prison address may be found here.

Previous letters from Kareem may be found here.

From the Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance: [For Arabic readers, click here]

Congress Investigates Plight of Jailed Egyptian Blogger

When Kareem Amer was detained by Egyptian police last November, the 22-year-old student could not have imagined his case would become an international incident. But now Congress is on the case.

The prosecutors interrogating Kareem demanded he recant opinions expressed on his blog. Kareem refused; he was placed in solitary confinement; and a judge sentenced him to four years in prison for “insulting religions” and “defaming Egypt’s president.”

At a recent Congressional hearing in Washington, HAMSA Outreach Director Nasser Weddady, testified about Kareem’s case and threats to other Egyptian bloggers.

“Blogging is the new frontier for free expression – and government repression,” said Weddady. “The uncensored space of blogs enables young Egyptians of diverse backgrounds to publish their thoughts for a global audience. But there has been a dramatic rise in harassment of bloggers, some of whom are now closing their blogs.”

Nonetheless, bloggers from around the world have united behind the “Free Kareem” Campaign. “Over 8,000 people have signed petitions calling for Kareem’s release,” Weddady noted. “The campaign organized rallies outside 12 Egyptian embassies around the world and generated international media coverage of Kareem’s case.”

Basic rights like free expression are not guaranteed, Weddady explained, but rather only given by authorities when citizens submit. Kareem was jailed simply because Egyptian officials felt his opinions crossed a red line.

Weddady asked Congress to intercede with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “The mistake made by one judge can be corrected by President Mubarak,” noted Weddady. “Surely the president of Egypt is not bothered by the blog of a random student.”

More updates on Kareem’s case coming soon.

Read rest of the newsletter here. Also linked within the newsletter is our letter campaign.

For the Arabic readers and bloggers, here is a translation of our letter campaign:

(You may also download the document in word.)