We have collected YouTube videos pertaining to Kareem Amer’s case for others to easily access. This collection includes videos of Kareem being interviewed, rallies, media coverage of Kareem, videos dedicated to Kareem, and one of him entering the prisoners’ van in which you can hear him scream after getting hit: YouTube Video Collection.

Do you have YouTube videos to add to this collection? Tell us!

The Listening Post, a weekly Al-Jazeera English Program, looks at the case of Kareem Amer:

From the Listening Post Web site:

Kareem Amer began a four year sentence in an Egyptian jail this week for criticising Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, and extremist interpretations of Islam.

The case has touched a nerve in the blogosphere sparking protests as far away as Washington, London and Rome.

The internet is one of the few outlets Egyptians have to freely express their opinions. Recent postings have exposed how the Egyptian police torture suspects. Human rights activists are concerned Amer’s harsh sentence is a warning to bloggers to practise self-censorship.

Highlights:
- Video shows Kareem leaving court room; he was heard being hit in the prisoners’ vehicle. (Quick link)
- Extremist lawyer and others cheer as Kareem enters prisoner vehicle. (Quick link)
- Red beating marks on Kareem’s face. (Quick link) [EDIT: Cannot be verified]
- Remarks made by neighbor. (Quick link)
- Kareem’s father to security officers: Be harsh on Kareem. (Quick link)
- Remarks made by the public outside the court room. (Quick link)


Blogger ‘Ana 7orr’ (‘I am free’), who attended Kareem’s court verdict session, provides a video of Kareem leaving the court room and getting into the prisoners’ vehicle. You can hear him scream after getting hit:

The video is 16 seconds long. Kareem’s face flashes by during the first few seconds. As he is being escorted toward the prisoners’ truck, you can hear people shouting out in Arabic, “Allahu akbar wa li Allah al-hamd!” (English: “Allah is the greatest, and to Allah we praise!”.

This chorus was lead by extremist prosecuting lawyer Mohamed Dawoud, who in a previous court session told The Associated Press: “I am on a jihad here … If we leave the likes of him [Kareem] without punishment, it will be like a fire that consumes everything.” (A ‘fire’ like this one, I suppose).

At 00:09, Kareem disappears into the truck and gets out of sight, and you can then hear him getting hit, which is followed by a painful scream (as was previously confirmed by The Associated Press).

Ana 7orr also confirms noticing that, as Kareem left the court, his face was red with beating marks. [EDIT: Cannot be verified]

Please contact the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and inform them about this violation of human rights. Use the Human Rights Commission address reserved for urgent matters to e-mail them this video: tb-petitions@ohchr.org.

Ana 7orr gives other details and pictures on another blog post: remarks made by Kareem’s father (according to a neighbor of Kareem’s), accusations made against Kareem, and what people outside the court generally thought of the case. Below is a summary of the relevant portions of his post:

The man in the above picture is prosecuting lawyer Mohamed Dawoud, who called for waging jihad against ‘the likes of Kareem’ and lead the cheering chorus when Kareem was entering the prisoners’ vehicle.

The media seemed focused on the man pictured above, Yasser Metwalli, who said he was Kareem’s neighbor. He stated that he engaged in a 45-minute discussion with Kareem, but failed to convince Kareem to abandon his views.

Yasser accused Kareem of being “funded” by people outside the country, and that human rights organizations contributed to his “corruption”.

Yasser also said that Kareem’s father asked security forces to be harsh on him so he can back out of his thoughts. His father also accused human rights organizations that stood by Kareem of corrupting him. He told Yasser that Europeans are sympathizing with Kareem only because he insulted Islam, and that if what Kareem said were pro-Islamic, no one would have sympathized with him, referring to Wafa Constantine as an example of that.

Kareem’s father also proposed to solve such “problems” of “corruption” by blocking Internet Web sites as Saudi Arabia does.


There were people outside the court who said that Kareem committed a crime and that he deserved to face a criminal court, whereas others argued that Kareem’s case is an ideological one, and that the courtroom is not the appropriate place to handle it. This was the opinion of many of Kareem’s sympathizers. However, many of his former sympathizers turned back on supporting him after they read some of his articles on Islam.

Bloggers being interviewed by the media outside the court.

Members of the public engaging in fierce discussions over Kareem Amer and the verdict. Some extremists insisted that Islam has only one interpretation, and some even went as far as calling for executing and stoning Kareem.
(Photo/camera date set incorrectly)

Security officials wait for Kareem to be lead outside the courtroom after having the verdict read out to him.

A couple of other pictures found elsewhere shows Kareem being lead out of the courtroom:

Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil in a shirt reading in Arabic: ‘prisoner investigation’ is escorted from court in Alexandria. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

Escorted from court in Alexandria (Reuters)

Again, please contact the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Use the Human Rights Commission address reserved for urgent matters to e-mail them this video: tb-petitions@ohchr.org.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” – Edmund Burke

British television station Channel 4 reports on Kareem Amer’s imprisonment, and discusses the struggle between Arab bloggers and their leaders in the Middle East.

Warning: Disturbing scenes of tortured Egyptian prisoners is shown in this video.

(If Internet Explorer acts strangely and crashes, as has happened with myself, try watching with Mozilla Firefox.)

Click here to watch Channel 4 News: Egyptian Blogger Jailed

UPDATE: Now on YouTube as well:

Blogosfere, an Italian network of 150 blogs of professional information, has created an excellent video of still photos taken during the February 15 rallies in Rome and London:

A couple of pictures from Rome with thanks to Alberto:

Among those present in the rally were Italian politician Daniele Capezzone and Senator Francisco Compagna.

You can see Blogosfere’s translated posts that are dedicated to Kareem and the rally here, here, here, here, and here. Thank you for standing with fellow blogger Kareem.

Other Rallies Held Worldwide on Free Kareem Day:
- Paris
- London
- New York City
- Washington, D.C.

The February 15 London rally organizer, Andrew Perraut, reports on the event with positive news:

I’m happy to report that it went very well. We had fewer people than expected, but it was a good group, with representatives from LSE, Amnesty International, the Institute for Economic Affairs, and the International Policy Network. We also attracted a writer for the Index on Censorship–he tells me that they are watching Kareem’s case very closely and are considering naming his as one of the most important cases of the year. There was also a documentary filmmaker who has produced a piece on Egyptian bloggers; she hopes to have segments including our rally aired on BBC 4.

We handed out quite a few fliers and got support from some of the people passing by. Our group was directly across from the Embassy and looking into their windows, which they quickly closed. Still, people from the inside were watching us through the curtains almost constantly, and one woman from the Embassy came outside to take some of our fliers. I’ve attached some pictures of the rally for you to see.

And here are the pictures, with thanks to Andrew and Blogosfere:

UPDATE (February 20, 2007):

Blogosfere has created an excellent video of still photos taken during the February 15 rallies in Rome and London:

Other Rallies Held Worldwide on Free Kareem Day:
- Paris
- New York City
- Rome
- Washington, D.C.

Excellent video below! Just one correction, however, Kareem did not blog under a fake name, he provided his full name, pictures, and phone number, which only proved his courage. He expressed his opinions without hiding behind anonymity.

Thanks to Sally Bishai for this link!