US Congressmen pressure Egyptian authorities to release jailed Alexandrian blogger Amer -

AIRO: Republican and Democratic representatives from the United States Congress have issued a bipartisan letter to the Egyptian government, calling for the immediate release of student blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman Amer who is currently standing trial for “defaming Islam” on his Internet blog.

Initiated by Congressman Trent Franks (R) and Congressman Barney Frank (D) and addressed to Egypt’s Ambassador Nabil Fahmy in Washington, the letter urges the government to “live up to its own stated values of democratic civil rights and to immediately release Mr. Amer from prison and drop all charges against him”.

Meanwhile, Amer, 22, appeared at the Moharram Beik Court in Alexandria on Thursday to stand for the first session of his trial which had been postponed from Jan. 17.

A former student of Al-Azhar University is currently detained in Al-Hadra prison in Alexandria for “spreading data and malicious rumors that disrupt public security”; “defaming the president of Egypt”; “incitement to overthrow the regime upon hatred and contempt”; and “incitement to hate ‘Islam’ “.

Accused of railing against Islam, he was expelled from the University in March 2006 and reportedly questioned by Al-Azhar professors before he was arrested by state authorities.

“Kareem was in very good spirits today due to the large number of supporters and media representatives who came to Alexandria to attend his trial,” Amer’s lawyer, Rawda Ahmed told The Daily Star Egypt.

However, journalists and photographers were reportedly prohibited by state security to enter the courtroom.

Upon request from the defense, the trial has been adjourned and will continue on Feb. 1.

In another development, an unidentified lawyer reportedly submitted a claim against Amer’s defense on Thursday, demanding they pay penalty fines for “defending a secularist who has insulted the Islamic faith”.

“The defense believes that state security might have pressured the lawyer to submit the claim or that the man might be a member of a radical religious group,” Dalia Ziada from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information told The Daily Star Egypt.

If convicted, the former Al-Azhar University student could face up to nine years in prison.

“The fact that American authorities are showing such strong interest in Amer will be of great influence in this disturbing case. Our lawyers who represent Amer will bring translated copies of the letter to court today,” Gamal Eid, Executive Director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told The Daily Star Egypt.

Global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) also welcomed the American initiative Wednesday.

“This is a good development … The charges on which Amer is held completely violate human rights law. Amer should be released immediately and the unconstitutional charges against him should be dropped,” Elijah Zarwan from HRW’s Middle East Division told The Daily Star Egypt.

The letter from the Congressmen also said Amer’s arrest indicated that respect for basic freedoms in Egypt were threatened.

According to Atef Ghamry, the former chief of Al-Ahram’s bureau in Washington and an expert in American affairs, the recent developments in the Amer case reinforce his belief that “calls for democracy in the Middle East are reemerging after a period when they were consistently downplayed.”

“The aim of introducing democracy in the Middle East was initially part of the Bush administration’s plan to change the Arab world internally. However, they had a change of heart after the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections. They did not want regimes coming into power in the Middle East that were not friendly to US interests,” Ghamry told The Daily Star Egypt.

Ghamry added, however, that there are signs from the US Congress that this will change.

“In the past two years, there have been many discussions, especially by liberals, over what really poses a threat to American national security,” he said.

In the meantime, Egypt’s growing community of bloggers maintain a positive attitude towards the American initiative, but still pose skepticism to whether or not Amer will be released.

“I am not too optimistic about this case. In my opinion, Amer should leave the country and try to seek asylum in either Europe or the US as soon as possible. He has no future in this country now. The authorities will destroy his life whether he is released from prison or not,” Hossam El-Hamalawy, blog moderator of www.arabawy.net told The Daily Star Egypt.

Wael Abbas, a blogger and photojournalist, said that while it helps to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities from outside, the real force must come from within.

“It is great that the American rival political parties are joining forces to show their support in this deeply flawed case, but there has to be more advocacy from within Egypt itself. Egyptian civil rights organizations must become more active in their outreach efforts,” Abbas said.

Hafez Abu Seada who is providing Amer with legal experts from his NGO the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), emphasized the need for the Egyptian authorities to act in accordance with international human rights law.

“Regardless of whether Amer’s writings contain disturbing content or not, Egypt must respect its commitment to freedom of expression for its citizens, as agreed upon in the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, of which Egypt is a signatory,” Abu Seada told The Daily Star Egypt.

Joint Letter Urges Egyptian Government to Release Young Web-blogger Imprisoned for Criticizing Radical Islam -

January 24, 2007 – Congressmen Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Barney Frank (D-MA) today wrote Egyptian Ambassador Nabil Fahmy regarding the arrest and imprisonment of Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman Amer, a 22-year-old resident of Alexandria, Egypt. Mr. Amer criticized the radical Islam expressed by his professors at Al Azhar University, where he was a law student, as well as in society more generally in a personal weblog. Before his arrest, he was kicked out of Al Azhar for his opinions.

Franks said, Democracies must allow for freedom of speech and certainly for the tolerance of diverse religious beliefs. I laud Mr. Amer’s recognition that violence in the name of religion is unacceptable. I urge the Egyptian government to free Mr. Amer and to protect its citizens from persecution.

According to reports, Mr. Amer is the first blogger the Egyptian government has put on trial for his writings. While he faces up to nine years in prison, other bloggers have been released without charges; however, unlike the other detained bloggers who concentrated on politics, Mr. Amer wrote often on religion. In late 2005, Mr. Amer was briefly detained after posting a commentary on riots in which angry Muslim worshippers attacked a Coptic Christian church over a play put on by Christians deemed offensive to Islam.

Congressman Franks is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on the Judiciary, is Ranking Member on the Constitution Subcommittee, and is a co-founder of the Task Force on International Religious Freedom (TIRF).

Link to the above press release.

US Congressmen Issue Demand to Release Abdel Kareem Soliman, Who Faces Nine Years in Jail for Blogposts on Egyptian Politics, Religious Tensions, and Women’s Rights

CAIRO – With Egyptian student Abdel Kareem Soliman about to go on trial for alleged crimes committed on his weblog, an international coalition of bloggers, activists, and political leaders is demanding respect for free expression in Egypt.

The Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network (www.mefaith.com), an alliance of diverse bloggers, is calling upon Egyptian authorities to drop charges against Soliman, who currently faces up to nine years in jail. His trial begins on Thursday.

“Kareem spoke his mind on his blog and did not hide his identity,” said Bahraini blogger Esra’a Al-Shafei, co-founder of the Interfaith Network. “Even though he was critical of Islam, I and the coalition’s other Muslim members respect his right to free speech. Jailing him for expressing his ‘secular’ views is a sign of fear, not the action of an open society.”

Based solely on his blogposts, Soliman is charged with the alleged crimes of “defaming Egypt’s President,” “incitement to hate Islam,” and “highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt.”

But members of the Interfaith Blogger Network argue that the decision to detain Soliman for the past 10 weeks without trial has severely harmed Egypt’s international reputation.

“Many international newspapers have all covered Kareem’s case,” noted network member Dalia Ziada in Cairo. “Millions of people are now aware that Egyptian authorities target bloggers simply for speaking their minds.” Over 2,000 people from around the world have signed the network’s petition demanding Kareem’s release.

In a dramatic development, members of Congress have today taken up Soliman’s case. Congressmen Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Barney Frank (D-MA) sent a letter to Egyptian Ambassador Nabil Fahmy demanding Soliman’s release and calling upon Egypt to respect freedom of expression or freedom of conscience.

Their letter states that the decision to arrest Soliman “simply for displeasure over writings on his personal weblog raises serious concern about the level of respect for these
freedoms in Egypt.”

Egyptian bloggers plan to pack the courthouse in Alexandria, Egypt, on Thursday, and millions of supporters around the world will be following the case via blogposts.

“We hope he will be acquitted,” remarked Al-Shafei, “But we are ready to act if he is convicted.”

Picture and brief coverage of Kareem on the AP wire can be located here.

More coveage from international news services -

AP: Accused Egyptian blogger stands trial
CNews: Egyptian blogger on trial
New York Times : Egypt: Blogger Goes on Trial

More info on Freedom for Egyptians.

Kareem’s trial was reported early today in the Guardian -

Accused Egyptian Blogger Stands Trial

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – An Egyptian blogger went on trial Thursday on charges of insulting Islam and causing sectarian strife with his Internet writings. Egypt’s first prosecution of a blogger came as Washington has backed away from pressuring its Mideast ally to improve its human rights record and bring democratic reform.

Abdel Kareem Nabil often denounced Islamic authorities and criticized Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his Arabic-language blog. He has been in detention since November and faces up to nine years in prison if convicted.

Egypt has arrested a string of pro-democracy bloggers over the past year, sparking condemnation from human rights groups.

Nabil’s trial in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria began two days after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Mubarak, seeking support for a new American strategy on calming violence in Iraq.

But unlike past visits to Egypt when she pressed demands for greater democracy, Rice made no reference to reform, instead praising the two countries’ “important strategic relationship – one that we value greatly.”

In 2005, the Bush administration made Egypt – which Mubarak has ruled unquestioned for a quarter century – the centerpiece of what it called a policy priority of promoting democratic change in the Arab world.

But Egyptian reformists say Washington has all but dropped its pressure on Mubarak amid the Bush administration’s need for support on Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The United States was also spooked when Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood made big gains in 2005 parliamentary elections and the radical Hamas movement won 2006 Palestinian elections – raising fears that greater democracy would increase fundamentalists’ power, activists say.

“America’s stance is very clear. It is so afraid after the victories of Hamas in Palestine and the Brotherhood in Egypt,” said Ahmed Seif al-Islam, a member of one of three Egyptian rights group backing Nabil in his case.

The United States “has not only lifted its hand and stopped pressure. We are in the phase of (the U.S.) hinting to government they can take repressive measures for the sake of stability,” he said.

In Thursday’s court session, Nabil was charged with inciting sedition, insulting Islam, harming national unity and insulting the president, a court official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of court rules.

Defense attorneys asked for time to review the indictment and the trial was adjourned until Jan. 25.

His lawyer, Radwa Sayed Ahmed, said Nabil had been held in solitary confinement, forbidden visits from his family and lawyers. In court Thursday, “he didn’t look good,” she told the Associated Press from Alexandria.

Nabil is the first blogger Egypt has put on trial for his writings. Other bloggers have been released without charges. But unlike the other detained bloggers, who concentrated on politics, Nabil wrote often on religion – and Seif al-Islam said the government was likely prosecuting him as part of its “competition with the Muslim Brotherhood to show its Islamic credentials.”

In his blog – where he uses the name Kareem Amer – Nabil was a fierce critic of conservative Muslims and in particularly of al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious religious institutions in the Sunni Muslim world.

Nabil was a law student at al-Azhar University, but denounced it as “the university of terrorism,” accusing it of promoting radical ideas and suppressing free thought. Al-Azhar “stuffs its students’ brains and turns them into human beasts … teaching them that there is no place for differences in this life,” he wrote.

He was thrown out of the university in March, and in his last blog entry before his arrest blamed al-Azhar for pushing the government to investigate him.

In other postings, Nabil described Mubarak’s regime as a “symbol of dictatorship.”

Nabil was briefly detained in late 2005 after posting a commentary on riots in which angry Muslim worshippers attacked a Coptic Christian church over a play put on by Christians deemed offensive to Islam.

“Muslims revealed their true ugly face and appeared to all the world that they are full of brutality, barbarism and inhumanity,” Nabil said of the October 2005 riots.

Blogging took off in Egypt in 2004, at a time when domestic political activists and the U.S. were stepping up calls for political reform.

Last year, police arrested Alaa Abdel-Fattah, whose blog helped organize anti-government protests, and held him for six weeks before releasing him in June. Another blogger, Mohammed el-Sharkawi, was arrested during a demonstration in May and allegedly sexually tortured in detention before his release.

Amnesty International and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have criticized the arrests as restricting freedom of expression. The Paris-based media watchdog has included Egypt in “Enemies of the Internet,” a report issued in November.

Daily Star Egypt features this article about a protest for Kareem on its front page -

CAIRO: A rally was held Friday in front of the Egyptian embassy in Washington DC to call for the release of blogger Abdel Karim Soliman Amer, who has been detained by security forces since November.

Organized by a group called the DC Coalition for Blog Freedom, the rally urged the Egyptian government release Alexandria native Amer and protects his right to free speech.

A statement by the group said “Because of the urgency of his plight, DC-area residents of diverse backgrounds are staging a peaceful rally in front of the Egyptian Embassy’s cultural affairs branch in DuPont Circle to defend Amer’s right to blog freely and to call for his immediate release from jail.”

Although the protestors presented a petition to an embassy official who came out to meet them, when The Daily Star Egypt contacted the Foreign Ministry there appeared to be no plans to take any further steps concerning the matter.

Amer, 22, was a student of Al Azhar University, but was expelled last March and then arrested on Nov. 7 for writings on his internet blog, where he allegedly criticized religion.

He is currently detained in Al-Hadra prison in Alexandria on charges of having defamed the Egyptian government, “Spreading data and malicious rumors that disrupt public security”; “defaming the president of Egypt”; “incitement to overthrow the regime upon hatred and contempt”; and “incitement to hate ‘Islam’ and breach of the public peace standards.”

Local activists and human rights organizations have previously told The Daily Star Egypt that bloggers who cover religious or sectarian issues are more likely to be targeted for arrest.

In a press release issued on Nov. 11, the organizations called upon the Egyptian government to immediately release Amer.

“The arbitrary accusations against Karim Amer indicate the authorities’ inclination to detain Kareem simply for expressing views contradictory to theirs. The public prosecutor told Kareem that if he did not abandon his views, even though personal, he may be imprisoned,” representatives from the organizations argue.

According to Dalia Ziada from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the investigator told Amer that “he should reconsider his secular opinions and change his mind in order to be able to get out of jail. When Karim insisted on his right to freedom of expression, the investigator ordered his re-detainment for another 15 days with the hope that the stay in prison might push Karim to change his mind.”

The Daily Star Egypt had previously attempted to contact the Ministry of Interior concerning the status of Amer. Several faxes of queries have not been answered and a ministry official who answered a request for a phone interview declined to comment.

Larbi sent us this article recently via a comment here. It is apparently unavaible on the internet, but Larbi was generous enough to provide the text for us:

Blogs sous surveillance

Par Alain Frachon, le Monde (France) du 13 Janvier 2007

Il s’appelle Abdelkareem Nabil Suleiman. C’est un jeune étudiant égyptien de 22 ans, un garçon sage, d’une famille musulmane conservatrice. On ne lui connaît aucun tropisme pour l’extrémisme politique – ni gauche ni islamiste. Il étudie le droit pour devenir avocat. Il aime son pays, ses parents, ses sœurs et sûrement ses grands-parents. Depuis la fin octobre 2005, Abdelkareem n’est plus tout à fait un homme libre, rapporte Reporters sans frontières (www.rsf.org). Régulièrement convoqué par la justice, il est tantôt incarcéré, tantôt remis en liberté, le temps que l’on précise les charges contre lui retenues. De nouveau arrêté le 6 novembre 2006, il a été présenté un mois plus tard à un procureur de la région d’Alexandrie (200 km au nord du Caire, la capitale). Il a comparu seul, ses avocats ayant été convoqués ailleurs … Le procureur a décidé de maintenir le jeune homme quelques semaines de plus en prison. Mais il a, enfin, f
ormulé des chefs d’inculpation. C’est lourd : « Circulation de rumeurs troublant l’ordre public ; diffamation à l’encontre du président égyptien ; incitation au renversement du régime ; incitation à la haine envers l’islam, circulation d’idées nuisant à la réputation de l’Egypte. »

Qu’a donc fait le sage Abdelkareem Nabil Suleiman ? Quel crime a-t-il commis pour retenir ainsi l’attention de la justice de son pays ? Réponse : il blogue. Sous son nom de blogueur, Kareem Amer, il tien son journal électronique à l’adresse suivante : karam903.blogspot.com, à l’intention de ceux qui ont le goût de s’y promener. Ecrits subversifs ? Abdelkareem dénonce le sort que l’islam réserve aux femmes, stigmatise les attiques contre les coptes d’Egypte, défend la cause des libertés public, etc. Voltairien sans le savoir, sans doute, il est centriste, réformiste sur un échiquier politique dont les dirigeants – le régime finissant d’Hosni Moubarak – ont décidé qu’entre eux, autocrates aux affaires, et les islamistes, il n’y aurait rien. Cela fait près d’un quart de siècle que ces régimes-là écrasent toute opposition démocratique pour créer l’impasse qui justifie le statu quo : nous ou les islamistes.

A nouveau champ d’expression, nouvelle répression donc. Mais la Toile a ceci de plaisant qu’elle facilite la solidarité militante – en réseau précisément. Pour sortir de l’alternative régimes autoritaires-islamistes, des courageux s’organisent. Ils défendent les défenseurs des droits de la femme et de l’homme dans le monde arabe. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (hrinfo.net) a le premier attiré l’attention sur le blogeur égyptien. Tapez Kareem Amer sur un moteur de recherche pour prendre la mesure de la mobilisation en faveur de ce prisonnier de conscience.

Sous la plume de notre consoeur Claire Ulrich, les lecteurs du Monde 2 pourront prochainement lire le portrait de l’Américain Ethan Zuckerman. C’est l’un des plus déterminés des activistes des droits de l’homme sur internet. Il anime www.globalvoicesonline.org qui, dans le monde entier, mène une veille constante sur les blogs traitant des droits de l’homme. Grâce à des blogueurs bénévoles de la trempe d’un jeune Egyptien nommé Abdelkareem Nabil Suleiman.

(By Alain Frachon, Le Monde January 13, 2007 – Le Monde is the leading French newspaper(www.lemonde.fr)

Luis Figueroa wrote about Kareem in an Op-ed piece for Prensa Libre.

By Dalia Ziada & Jese Sage -

In a cramped jail cell in Alexandria, Egypt, sits a soft-spoken 22-year-old student. Kareem Amer was remanded to over a month in prison for allegedly “defaming the President of Egypt” and “highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt.” Where did Amer commit these supposed felonies? On his weblog.

If the Alexandria prosecutors’ standards of censorship were applied in the US, thousands of Americans would be behind bars. The Egyptian authorities’ decision to jail an obscure student for his blogposts reveals a larger struggle for free speech playing out between dissident bloggers and state prosecutors across the Middle East.

For decades, the region’s dictators maintained a monopoly on public information. Newspapers, radio stations, and national television broadcasts were nearly all owned by the state. These regime-controlled media outlets toed the government line, maligned political opponents, and blocked critical voices. By inverting the watchdog role of the press – where journalists expose, investigate, and question – what should be a critical independent institution was instead transformed into a mouthpiece for government propaganda.

The advent of blogs in the past few years, however, has reshaped the playing field. While some regimes (like Algeria) may still own the main printing presses and control the national supply of ink, any citizen can access free blogging services. Now an individual’s voice – even that of a random student at Al-Azhar University, like Kareem Amer – can reach audiences around the globe.

Regimes accustomed to control have struggled to respond. In Tunisia, web publisher Zouhair Yahyaoui was dragged from an Internet café by security forces and tortured into revealing his site’s password after he posted a quiz mocking President Zinedine Ben Ali. In Bahrain, the Information Ministry blocked the blog of entrepreneur Mahmoud Al-Yousif for covering a political scandal. In Iran, authorities arrested student Mojtaba Saminejad after he condemned the arrest of several fellow bloggers and “insulted the Supreme Leader.”

Protecting free speech in the Middle East hinges on the fate of young activists like Kareem Amer. Raised in a strict Islamic household, Amer was placed in Al-Azhar’s religious school system at the age of six and watched as his sisters were forced to quit school and wear the niqab (the full-body black veil). After 18 years in the rigid world of the Al Azhar system, Amer evidently felt trapped. Rather than embrace the religious establishment, he became a critic of discrimination against women and non-Muslims.

Blogging became Amer’s outlet – and his downfall. When Al-Azhar officials discovered a blogpost criticizing extremist professors, Amer was expelled and his case referred to the public prosecutor.

Although a human rights lawyer accompanied Amer to his interrogation, prosecutors made clear they were indicting Amer for his beliefs. “Do you fast on Ramadan?” they demanded. “Do you pray?” They even insisted he reveal his opinions on the Darfur crisis. Amer would not retract his blogposts, so prosecutors threw him in jail – and laughed at the human rights attorney present, openly mocking the concept of standing up for individual rights.

Only a few years ago, the arrest of a student at Al-Azhar would have been met with silence and indifference from the outside world. But today, hundreds of fellow bloggers and readers from around the world have raised the alarm. Over 1,500 have sent letters to the Egyptian government and the State Department demanding Amer’s release. The technology that has empowered unknown students in closed societies to speak to the world also gives readers everywhere the ability to rally together to protect free expression.

It also enabled Amer to smuggle blogposts out from his Alexandria cell. “A person using his brain and expressing his ideas freely,” he observed, “is more dangerous in our country than someone who destroys others’ property or deals drugs.”

Amer’s arrest – for writing on a website few people have ever read – comes as the future of the Middle East hangs in the balance. While recent years have witnessed a surge in young voices challenging the status quo, powerful forces are trying to close down that window of greater liberty. In the campaign to hold Egyptian authorities accountable for criminalizing free speech, much more than the fate of one young blogger is at stake.

Dalia Ziada is a staffer at the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Jesse Sage directs the HAMSA project of the American Islamic Congress.