For three years now, Kareem Amer has been in prison for expressing his opinions. Although the authorities customarily grant a release request after three quarters of a prisoner’s sentence, Kareem’s hearing has been repeatedly postponed and is still pending.

In the West and especially in Switzerland, we enjoy free speech. That is why we are organizing a rally in front of the Embassy of Egypt, Elfenauweg 61, in Bern, on Friday, November 6, 2009, between 11 and 11:30 a.m.

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French:

Trois ans déjà que Kareem Amer est emprisonné pour des faits qui relèvent de la liberté d’expression. Sa demande de mise en liberté devant la cour de Cassation après l’accomplissement des trois-quarts de la peine et qui est habituellement accordée, est encore repoussée.

Nous avons le privilège et en particulier en Suisse de pouvoir nous exprimer librement. C’est pourquoi nous organisons un Rallye devant l’ambassade d’Egypte, Elfenauweg 61, à Berne, le vendredi 6 novembre 2009 de 11h à 11h30.

Bus 19, arrêt Willadingweg.

Comme dans d’autres capitales dans le monde, venez avec nous affirmer dans la dignité que la liberté individuelle et la liberté de pensée et de parole sont un droit de l’homme.

German:

Es ist schon drei Jahre her, seit Kareem Amer wegen Tätigkeiten, die zur Meinungsfreiheit gehören, inhaftiert worden ist. Das Freiheitsgesuch vor dem Hochgerichtshof ist zum dritten Mal verschoben worden.

Wir haben insbesondere in der Schweiz das Privileg, uns frei zu äussern. Deshalb organisieren wir am Freitag, 6. November 2009 zwischen 11 und 11.30 Uhr einen Rallye vor der ägyptischen Botschaft, Elfenauweg 61, in Bern.

Bus 19, Haltestelle Willadingweg

Wie in anderen Hauptstädten wollen wir mit Würde bestätigen, dass individelle Freiheit und freie Meinungsäusserung Menschenrechte sind.

The Phoenix now has a detailed account of how the rally went:

Last week, as many Americans were celebrating the victory of Barack Obama, Heather Klink and a group of her classmates at Roger Williams University staged a vigil to protest the continued imprisonment of the Egyptian blogger known as Kareem Amer.

Klink, a senior, says she learned about Amer’s case after taking PEN, a class taught by novelist Adam Braver in which students discuss the plight of imprisoned writers. As a result, some of her classmates and she launched a group, Pens of Peace, to agitate on the same issue.

[...]

Klink says she was part of a group of about 14 students and 10 faculty members who staged a vigil at RWU last Thursday on Amer’s behalf.

“It is the kind of case that everyone should be interested in,” she tells me, “especially students,” since Amer was 22 when he was arrested. As a creative writing major, Klink says, the prospect of being imprisoned for writing something “really hits close to home for me, as it should for all students here.”

Klink says Pens for Peace has focused on trying to raise awareness about Amer’s case, to get more people involved, and that it plans next semester to try to involve some of Rhode Island’s elected officials. Egypt is a major recipient of US foreign aid, so human-rights activists hope that increased pressure could have an impact.

“My concern is that by imprisoning Kareem Amer, they’re setting an example,” Klink says, and if this goes unchallenged, it will have negative consequences for free speech in Egypt and possibly elsewhere.

Link to original article.

We thank all the students and faculty at Roger Williams University for getting involved and spreading awareness about what Kareem is going through.

CAIRO: Human rights activists and democracy advocates around the world protested and criticized the imprisonment of Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, who was sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and defaming Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

On Thursday Nov. 6, which marked the second anniversary of Amer’s arrest, demonstrations were held in several world capitals calling for the blogger’s release and criticizing Egypt’s violation of the citizen’s right to freedom of expression.

The demonstrations were organized by the Free Kareem Coalition, an online “campaign to free the brave Egyptian blogger,” according to the website.

Holding up banners and posters with phrases such as “Shame on Egypt” and “Respect Human Rights,” human rights activists stood in front of Egyptian embassies and consulates in New York, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Rome and Brussels, among other cities worldwide.

Pete Eyre, organizer of the rally in Washington DC, told Beirut-based website MENASSAT that their event was a “success.”

“There were 18 people who showed up to help spread the word about Kareem and vocalize their opposition to government-imposed censorship. Foot traffic in the area was moderate, and we handed out around 350 flyers,” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Soviet dissident and democracy advocate Natan Sharansky strongly criticized the Egyptian authorities for Amer’s imprisonment.

“Freedom of speech is an inalienable right. Suppressing that right contravenes human decency and makes a mockery of the democratic ideal.

“We strongly condemn Egypt’s brazen assault on human liberty. Repression and autocracy must be castigated in no uncertain terms. Aid to a regime which denies its citizens basic rights is both counter-productive and immoral. We call on the Egyptian government to immediately release Kareem Amer and the many dissidents who bravely speak out in the name of freedom,” said Sharansky, who is currently, chairman of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at Jerusalem’s Shalem Center, in a statement to the press.

Twenty-four year old Amer, who was expelled from Al Azhar University, was arrested on Nov. 6, 2006 in his hometown, Alexandria. He was sentenced to three years in prison on Feb. 22, 2007 for his blog entries, which the court considered to be insulting to Islam and defaming to President Mubarak.

At the time, Amnesty International described his arrest as “a slap in the face of freedom of expression in Egypt.”

He is currently serving his sentence at Borg El-Arab prison on the North Coast in Alexandria. Amer has served half of his sentence, which makes him eligible for release if the state decides.

Last Thursday, Gamal Eid, director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, visited Amer and was reportedly appalled by the conditions of the prison, saying that detainees are harassed by the police officers.

“There are no laws governing this prison, any new state security officer can run it by his own laws. This is a matter of shame to the Ministry of Interior, which leaves prisoners as the victims of officers who have no respect for the law,” Eid said in a statement released by ANHRI

Link to original article.

Some photos and a summary of the event (cross-posted from the Oxford Libertarian Society Blog) are below:

Last Thursday afternoon, student representatives from Oxford, UCL and the LSE converged on the Egyptian Embassy in London to protest the continued imprisonment of Kareem Amer.

As officials scurried between their cars and the Embassy, they were greeted not only by the London drizzle but also by defiant chants of “Free Kareem!” We also caught the attention of the staff working on the upper floors of the Embassy, who didn’t seem to appreciate the vocal aspect of our protest.

Unlike last year, no officials came out to speak to us, but a young man from the adjacent office came over to ask who Kareem was. He seemed nervous, as if afraid to be seen talking to us. After we explained to him what we were protesting about, he expressed sympathy for Kareem’s plight, but was (quite understandably) reluctant to sign our petition. A sad reminder of the shadow of fear cast by the Egyptian government, even over its own employees.

A couple of passers-by stopped to ask about Kareem’s case, and kindly added their names to the petition. At the end of the rally, we attempted to deliver our petition (with 51 names) to a member of Embassy staff, hoping to discuss Kareem’s case. We tried at the entrance at 26 South Street, but the man who opened the door resisted our attempts to hand him the petition as if it were a live cobra. We got a very similar reaction at the entrance round the corner on South Audley Street, so in the end we had to settle for posting our petition through the letterbox.

Many thanks to everyone who attended this year’s protest, and to those who contributed to the petition. I hope to see as many people as possible at the next rally.

Great job everyone!

There were three speakers at the demonstration for Kareem in Stockholm. They were Hans Egnell, editor of the magasine Nyliberalen, Mattias Svensson, editor of Magasinet Neo, and Frida Johansson Metso, chairman of the Liberal Ungdosmförbundet (Organisation of young liberals).

Below are what the three speakers wanted to highlight in their speeches.

Speaker Hans Egnell emphasized that “Regimes try to censor the Internet to get control over something that cannot be controlled. This makes the authorities frustrated. It also shows the low self esteem of these oppressing regimes. The Egyptian regime got so frightened by the words of one blogger that they accussed him of trying to overthrow the government and claimed that he was a threat to national security! If anything, that shows that WORDS can scare the people in power and that WORDS can change the world to the better.”

Mattias Svensson said that “Kareem is not in prison because he is a criminal. He is in prison because the government in his country is criminal. He is in prison because his government has violated his fundamental right to express his thoughts. We have gathered here in Stockholm in support of Kareem because the right to speak one’s mind is a universal right for everyone. This thought can neither be stopped by boarders nor be locked in a den. There is no den anywhere on earth that it is so dark that it cannot be reached by enlightenment. Our speeches, our thoughts and our sympathy belongs to Kareem during his troublesome time just because freedom is a universal right.”

Finally, Frida Johansson Metso stated that “What Kareem has done is necessary in order for Egypt to become a democracy and to develope. However, in order for this to happen it is as necessary for those of us who know what is happening, and for that reason have a responsibility to act, even when things like this happen outside Sweden and to other than Swedish citizens. Humans rights are worth nothing unless they are protected for all, by all, all the time.

These are wise and powerful words that the Egyptian government needs to learn and practice! Our thanks go out to everyone who attended this rally and made it the successful event that it was in sending a crucial message to Egypt about Kareem and the importance of his freedom, and what that freedom means to all of us. We sincerely thank Jonas Virdalm for also organizing this and keeping us updated about how it went!

Edit:  Jonas had just sent us the pictures, here they are!

Here are some pictures, and a note from the organizer.

The rally for Kareem took place in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Bern, Switzerland as planned. A small group of persons with one of our youngest supporters of Kareem, was there holding posters in English, French and German. A letter asking for the immediate liberation of Kareem was handed to an employee of the embassy who promised to give it to the person in charge.

Thank you so much, Maryvonne, for making this possible!

And a picture:

We sincerely thank everyone at IUF for making this possible! We are incredibly grateful for their constant support.

The rally in DC was a success. There were 18 freedom fighters who showed up to help spread the word about Kareem and vocalize their opposition to government-imposed censorship. Foot traffic in the area was moderate, and we handed out around 350 flyers.

I had a short conversation with an employee at the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau (where the Free Kareem rally has been held the past three times as well, as the Egyptian Embassy is a bit off the beaten path). I wanted to communicate why were had gathered outside their property. He was surprisingly pleasant and in agreeable about Kareem’s right to free speech because, as he put it, he is a “human being” (he noted that he had himself moved to the U.S. to more fully enjoy his rights). I asked him to tell his colleagues and those he works for that we don’t support Egypt’s policy on this issue.

My colleague Drew got some footage from which the attached stills were pulled. I hope to put together a video on Kareem and the larger issue of free speech, similar to what we did for the DC gun ban case and the larger case for freedom in Heller Yeah!

(Click on each image for a larger picture.)

Here is a news article covering the event in Dutch.