The following is a guest post from Maryvonne, organizer of the Free Kareem Rally in Bern, Switzerland:

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.

Bureaucrash and other liberty activists in Washington, DC will be holding a Free Kareem rally from 12pm – 1pm, November 6th at the following location:

Egyptian Cultural & Educational Bureau

1303 New Hampshire Avenue NW

Washington DC 20036

Map:

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Please join us to show your solidarity for individual liberty and free speech. If you would like to network with people attending the rally please view the following websites:

Facebook Event

Social Bureaucrash

Thank you.

Lee Doren
Bureaucrash

A few weeks ago while we were still organizing worldwide rallies, we wrote about students at Roger Williams University and the event that they were hosting in support for Kareem.

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.

Worldwide Protests Against Kareem Amer’s Imprisonment, by Safaa Abdoun for the Daily News Egypt:

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.

12 cities around the world are participating (or have participated) in the worldwide Free Kareem demonstrations today.

Here they are:

• Paris, France

• London, UK

• Brussels, Belgium

• Stockholm, Sweden

• Berlin, Germany

• Bucharest, Romania

• Washington, DC, USA

• New York, NY, USA

• Rome, Italy

• Berne, Switzerland

• Rhode Island, USA

• NEW! San Francisco, California

Thanks for everyone who got involved to make this possible! We will be posting the results shortly.

IUF will sponsor a Free Kareem Rally in Berlin in front of the Egyptian Embassy at 12.30pm on the 6th of November.

6. November 12.30 Uhr
Kundgebung für die Freiheit von Kareem Amer
Kundgebung vor der ägyptischen Botschaft in Berlin

Sehr geehrte Frau Wright,

wir möchten Sie herzlich einladen, an diesem Donnerstag, dem 6.11. um 12.30 Uhr, mit uns Ihre Unterstützung für den ägyptischen Blogger Kareem Amer auszudrücken.

Kareem Amer ist ein ägyptischer Autor und Blogger der immer den Mut fand sich für das Recht auf freie Meinungsäusserung einzusetzen. Da er selbst von diesem Recht Gebrauch gemacht hat, ist er zu einer Gefängnisstrafe von vier Jahren verurteilt worden.

Zusammen mit anderen Organisationen und Individuen in vielen Hauptstädten der Welt werden wir gegen die Inhaftierung des ägyptischen Bloggers Kareem Amer protestieren, der für sein Eintreten für Gleichberechtigung, seine Kritik an der Radikalisierung des Islam und der ägyptischen Regierung verurteilt wurde.

Unabhängig davon ob, Sie Kareems Positionen teilen, können wir alle der Meinung sein, dass niemand für das Äußern seiner Meinung inhaftiert werden darf. Wir bitten Sie daher am Donnerstag zwischen 12.30 Uhr – 13.30 Uhr, während Ihrer Mittagszeit mit uns Kareem und das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung zu unterstützen.

Veranstaltungsort
Egyptian Embassy / Ägyptische Botschaft in Berlin
Stauffenberg Str. 6-7
10785 Berlin

Wegbeschreibung über google
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=stauffenbergstr.+Berlin

Routenplaner der Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
BVG

Programm

12.30 Uhr Kundgebung für die Freilassung von Kareem Amer

13.30 Uhr Übergabe der Petition zur Freilassung von Kareem Amer an den Ägyptischen Gesandten

13.40 Uhr Ende der Veranstaltung

Das IUF lädt die Teilnehmer am Donnerstagabend um 19.00 Uhr zu einer informellen Veranstaltung in die Räume des IUF ein.

Bitte beachten Sie, dass für die Teilnahme am Donnerstagmittag, trotz Klimawandel, warme Kleidung von großem Vorteil ist.

A Free Kareem rally will be taking place in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Bern, Switzerland on Nov. 6 at about 11:00am.

[Bus line 19, stop Willadingweg.]

If you’d like to request for any specific details concerning this rally, please contact the organizer, Maryvonne Chartier-Raymond through chray[at]bluewin.ch

Your attendance at any of the worldwide rallies makes a difference!

In an effort to spread as much awareness as possible about Kareem, students at Roger Williams University will be holding a peaceful rally for him on November 6th at Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island. It will be at 6 or 7PM.

For our dear readers in Romania, please note that there is a Facebook event concerning the rally.

Pe 22 februarie 2007 Kareem Amer, un tânar egiptean a fost condamnat la 4 ani de închisoare pentru “incitare la ură faţă de musulmani”, “defăimarea Preşedintelui Republicii” şi “insulte aduse Islamului”. Toate aceste „crime” au fost comise de Kareem pe blogul personal. Constituţiile majorităţii statelor lumii, inclusiv cea a Egiptului, garantează dreptul la libera exprimare. Cu toate astea, guvernul Egiptului refuză sa respecte drepturile lui Kareem şi să retragă acuzaţiile. De aceea, pe 6 noiembrie, data la care Kareem a fost arestat, se organizează mişcări de protest şi demonstraţii de solidaritate cu tanarul egiptean în toate marile oraşe ale lumii, inclusiv Bucureşti. Vino pe 6 noiembrie în faţa ambasadei Egiptului la Bucureşti la un protest pentru Kareem şi împotriva încălcării dreptului la liberă exprimare.

There is also a new blog for Kareem in Romanian!

The organizers are doing a great job and it’s great to see so many people around the world united and committed to Kareem’s cause.

New York has just been added as a confirmed location in the worldwide demonstrations for Kareem.

The rally will be taking place at the Egyptian Mission to the UN, at the following address:
304 East 44th St. (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
From Noon until 1:30PM!

We encourage everyone in or near New York to participate in this important rally!

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For more information about the rally please contact the organizer Anna Kushner, a director at PEN, of which Kareem is an honorary member of through anna[at]pen.org (replace [at] with @) or simply use our contact form.