Many thanks to Alberto Mingardi for organizing this rally and making it possible. We are especially thankful for the media coverage. Historian Giordano Bruno Guerri writes a piece covering this on Il Giornale. At least 150 fliers were distributed.

(Pictures first published in Dal Mondo.)

UPDATE (April 30, 2007):

Blogosfere, as usual, shows its support for Kareem at the rally (hat tip: Sara Bovi):

- Anche Blogosfere alla manifestazione per Kareem
- Blogosfere alla manifestazione per il blogger Kareem
- Free Kareem

Many thanks to Bidjan Tobias Nashat from the Hertie School of Governance for making this rally possible and for organizing the much needed event. Thanks a lot!

(Thanks to Amnesty for the above pictures.)

UPDATE (May 9, 2007):
Amnesty’s coverage on the event is published here: Mahnwache für inhaftierten ägyptischen Blogger. (Hat tip: Bidjan)

Many thanks to Andrew Perraut, our London Coordinator, who also notes:

…the Embassy staff were watching us carefully again and many of them passed by us several times to read the signs. We even had a few people stop to honk their horns in a show of support or tell us that they hoped Kareem was freed soon. His profile is definitely higher than it was during the last rally.

Thanks Andrew for making this rally possible!

Thanks to Anca Bogdana Rusu and Olga Nicoara for their hard work on making this rally possible, and for sending us the pictures below!

This is a note from the organizer:

Thanks to Olga who put a lot of time and effort into getting the authorization from the City Hall, the Free Karrem Bucharest rally went according to the plan. We were not many but we were passionate about our mission. At 11 a.m. in front of the Egyptian Embassy here in Romania we gathered ready for “fight”, armed with fliers, letters to the ambassador ready to be signed (thanks again to Olga’s devoted work) and last but not least flowers we began. We gave fliers and flowers to people passing by, in an attempt to raise public awareness about Kareem’s case.

The choice for flowers was justified by 2 reasons: first of all to make it clear ours was a peaceful, respectful manifestation, that we mean no harm, just trying to help one of our friends, secondly it is so much more difficult for people to say no when you hand them a flower along with a flier (Horia called it bribery, I prefer to call it successful marketing strategy)….and it did work, most people we spoke to agreed to sign our petition and many also promised to sign the online one. Next week, after we gather more signatures we plan to send them all to the Egyptian Embassy.

Our only hope is that this work manages in some way to help Kareem and to bring him some comfort by showing him he’s not alone and people around the world do care about him and his faith.

Thank you,
Anca

We are extremely proud of their efforts and for this meaningful rally which helped us send a very positive and urgent message to Egypt.

Pictures below:

Many thanks to Henrik Alexandersson, one of the speakers at the rally, for these pictures. We are expecting more from the organizers and fellow protestors!

Rally organizer Jonas carries a sign that translates to “Honk your horn for freedom of speech!”

Johan Norberg speaks out for Kareem.

Stefan Geens, who lives in Egypt.

Member of parliament Henrik von Sydow of the Moderata Samlingspartiet party.

Many thanks to Jonas Virdalm for organizing this rally, who also adds:

There were 6 policemen there watching us and they did not bother to report us. So it was a good demonstration for a good cause.

Thank you so much for making all of this possible! We are very happy that the Stockholm were, as per usual, a great success.

UPDATES (April 30)

1. More pictures here.

2. Videos galore!

Many thanks to our friends in DC who made this rally possible! Special thanks to Knud Edmund Berthelsen for helping out with the organization of this rally.

Here are the pictures:

More pictures available on Flickr!

Many thanks to our good friends at the Liberal Alliance who helped us by rallying for Kareem’s cause and the cause of human rights in general!

A rally was held in front of the Egyptian embassy in Athens where a petition for Kareem’s release was handed to the ambassador.

Special thanks to Fotis Perlikos for organizing the rally as well as providing us with pictures. Thank you so much!

Below is an open letter that will be handed to the Ambassadors to each of the eleven countries worldwide, in which demonstrations are to be held tomorrow in solidarity for Kareem:

Dear Mr. Ambassador:

We greet you in peace. Our reason for contacting you is the case of Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, a young Egyptian law student at Al-Azhar University who was recently sentenced to four years in jail over writing on his personal Weblog.

We do not condone everything Mr. Soliman wrote, but we do believe in his right to express his opinion. His controversial writing criticized what he felt was a lack of freedom on the campus of Al-Azhar and in Egypt in general. As if to prove his point, the Egyptian court sentenced him to jail for expressing those views.

We do not believe Mr. Soliman should be in jail for simply stating his opinion, and we believe the court’s decision reflects very poorly on the country of Egypt. A mistake has been made.

We call upon Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to do an honorable act and pardon Mr. Soliman. Since Mr. Soliman was sentenced to jail for one year for insulting the President, we hope President Mubarak will show that words do not hurt him and that Mr. Soliman can go free.

Thank you for your consideration and for transmitting our appeal to President Mubarak.

At Al-Masree Al-Yawm. Translation below!

Bloggers Demonstrating for Prisoners’ Release to Demonstrate At Ten Capitals Tomorrow

Muhammad Abdul-Khaleq Msahel
April 26, 2007

On the upcoming Friday, ten American and European capitals will be witnessing large-scale demonstrations in front of Egyptian Embassies. These demonstrations are in protest of limiting freedom of opinion and speech, repressing bloggers, and transgressing their blogs.

Global Voices, a Canada-based blog, is setting up the communications between the human rights organizations and all blogs around the world to gather in front of Egyptian Embassies in Vienna, Brussels, Ontario, Prague, Athens, Rome, Bucharest, Stockholm, and London, as well as the Egyptian Embassy Cultural Office in Washington.

Bloggers have invited others to participate in these demonstrations with the purpose of applying pressure on the Egyptian government to release jailed bloggers from prison, among them [Abdul] Kareem Nabeel, who is charged with insulting the President of the Republic and the Islamic religion.

Corrections:

- Global Voices Online is not based in Canada, but is rather an American-based international project of Harvard Law School.
- Global Voices Online has no association with our campaign.
- Berlin is also participating in tomorrow’s rallies.

We are happy to announce that about a dozen rallies will be held worldwide in support of Kareem Amer. If you happen to be near any of the locations listed below, we’d love you to join us on Friday, April 27!

(Want to help but can’t attend a demonstration? See our What You Can Do page!)

Note from rally volunteers: While we appreciate the support provided by organizations worldwide, everyone is participating first and foremost as a civilian, not necessarily as a member of a particular organization.

This list will be updated as we get more details. Stay tuned!

Country List:

Austria
City: Vienna
Address: Egyptian Embassy, Hohe Warte 50-54, A-1190 Wien (Map)
Time: TBA
Contact: David Maeir
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Belgium
City: Brussels
Address: Egyptian Embassy, Avenue de l’Uruguay 19, 1000 Brussels (Map)
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Contact: Pieter Cleppe, Jong VLD
Note: Please see announcement here (PDF)
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Canada
City: Ottawa, Ontario
Address: TBA
Time: TBA
Contact: Mohammed Shouman
Note: Facebook event here
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Czech Republic
City: Prague
Address: Egyptian Embassy, Pelléova 14, Praha 6 – Bubeneč, 160 00 (Maps here and here)
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Contact: Lamis Khalilova, Amnesty Czech
Note: Please see announcement (Czech, English) (PDF)
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Germany
City: Berlin
Address: Egyptian Embassy, Stauffenberg Str. 6-7, 10785 Berlin (Map)
Time: 11:00 am – 11:30 am
Contact: Bidjan Tobias Nashat, Hertie School of Governance
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Greece
City: Athens
Address: Egyptian Embassy, 3 Vasilissis Sofias Av., 106 71 Athens
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Contact: Fotis Perlikos, Liberal Alliance
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Italy
City: Rome
Address: Italian Parliament, Piazza Montecitorio – Roma (Map)
Time: 10:00 am – 10:30 am
Contact: Alberto Mingardi
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Romania
City: Bucharest
Address: Egyptian Embassy, Dacia Boulevard 67
Time: 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Contact: Olga Nicoara
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Sweden
City: Stockholm
Address: Egyptian Embassy, Strandvägen 35 (Map)
Time: 12 pm (sharp)
Contact: Jonas Virdalm
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United Kingdom
City: London
Address: 216 South Street (Map)
Time: 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Contact: Andrew Perraut
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United States of America
City: Washington, DC
Address: Egyptian Embassy Cultural Office by DuPont Circle, 1303 New Hampshire Ave. NW (Map)
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Contact: Knud Edmund Berthelsen
Note: Facebook event here
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