Egypt: Blogger prison sentence a slap in the face for freedom of expression
Just received an e mail from blogproject@amnesty.org.uk
Hi All ,
Read my post :"Egypt: Trial of blogger expands realm of repression " here.
Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 23-year old former law student who is charged with insulting Islam, inciting sedition and insulting the president. Nabil was previously expelled from Al Azhar University for his women’s rights activism and support for other secular progressive causes. Nabil’s Arabic-language blog contains a short biography in English, which presumably hasn’t been updated in several months:
Amnesty International today (22 February) condemned the four-year sentence handed down by an Egyptian court against blogger Karim Amer, and called for his immediate and unconditional release.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:
Karim Amer is the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for writing blogs criticizing Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam. Charges against him included "spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country's reputation", "incitement to hate Islam" and "defaming the President of the Republic".
Over 60,000 people have joined Amnesty's irrepressible.info campaign, highlighting the repression of internet users around the world. Irrepressible.info campaigns against internet repression in all its forms: the blocking of websites, deletion of blogs, restriction of search engines and imprisonment of people simply for posting and sharing information. For more information see http://irrepressible.info.
Reporters Without Borders: “This sentence is a disgrace… a slap in the face”
Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned the four-year prison sentence imposed today by a court in Alexandria on Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman for “inciting hatred of Islam” and insulting President Hosni Mubarak in his blog, for which he used the pseudonym of “Kareem Amer.”
“This sentence is a disgrace,” the press freedom organisation said. “Almost three years ago to the day, President Mubarak promised to abolish prison sentences for press offences. Suleiman’s conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as an effective bulwark against the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”
Reporters Without Borders continued: “As a result of this conviction, which clearly confirms Egypt’s inclusion in our list of Internet enemies, we call on the United Nations to reject Egypt’s request to host the Internet Governance Forum in 2009. After letting Tunisia, another violator of online freedom, host the World Summit on the Information Society, such a choice would completely discredit the UN process for debating the future of the Internet.”
The organisation added: “This heavy sentence is also a slap in the face for the international organisations and governments that support President Mubarak’s policies. It is time the international community took a stand on Egypt’s repeated violations of press freedom and the rights of Internet users.”
Suleiman, who was arrested on 6 November 2006, got three years for inciting hatred of Islam and one year for insulting the president. The judge dismissed the charge of “spreading rumours liable to disturb the peace” which had been included in the prosecution’s indictment. Suleiman’s blogs regularly criticised the government’s religious and authoritarian excesses. He also criticised Egypt’s highest religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law.
Egypt is on the list of the 13 Internet enemies which Reporters Without Borders compiled in 2006. The government wants to host one of the stages of the Internet Governance Forum, a series of UN-sponsored negotiations about how to regulate the Internet (see: http://www.intgovforum.org/).
On 23 February 2004, the newly-elected president of the Union of Egyptian Journalists, Galal Aref, made an important announcement: President Mubarak had just telephoned him and had formally undertaken to abolish prison sentences for journalists in connection with their work. In effect, he was promising a major overhaul of the laws concerning press offences. Three years later, nothing has changed. Journalists still risk being imprisoned despite the semblance of a reform last year.
Reporters Without Borders believes that people writing online, like professional journalists, should enjoy the basic right to freedom of expression and it condemns any use of prison sentences to punish offences linked to the publication of views and information.
Previous updates on Kareem Amer by Reporters Without Borders are available here.
Egypt blogger Kareem Amer prison sentence
Hi All ,
Breaking (bad) news: we’ve found out that the Egyptian blogger we’ve previously emailed you about, Karim Amer, was sentenced today to four years in prison, for criticising Egyptian state and religious institutions.
Amnesty has condemned Karim’s sentence and is calling for his immediate release. You can find out more at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17280 .
It’s hard to believe Karim faces a four-year prison sentence for peacefully expressing his views – something we all do with our own blogs…
Check out http://www.freekareem.org/ for more information about Karim, and don’t forget to sign (as if you haven’t already done so!) - and get everyone you know to sign - the Irrepressible.info pledge on Internet freedom.
Thanks for your support
Until next time,
Steve and Liz
from the AIUK Media Unit ‘Project Blog’ Team
Read my post :"Egypt: Trial of blogger expands realm of repression " here.
Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 23-year old former law student who is charged with insulting Islam, inciting sedition and insulting the president. Nabil was previously expelled from Al Azhar University for his women’s rights activism and support for other secular progressive causes. Nabil’s Arabic-language blog contains a short biography in English, which presumably hasn’t been updated in several months:
I am down to earth Law student; I look forward to help humanity against all form of discriminations. I am currently studying Law in Al Azhar University. I am looking forward to open up my own human rights activists Law firm, which will include other lawyers who share the same views. Our main goal is to defend the rights of Muslim and Arabic women against all form of discrimination and to stop violent crimes committed on a daily basis in these countries .
Amnesty International today (22 February) condemned the four-year sentence handed down by an Egyptian court against blogger Karim Amer, and called for his immediate and unconditional release.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:
"This sentence is yet another slap in the face of freedom for expression in Egypt.
"Karim Amer is a prisoner of conscience who is being prosecuted on account of the peaceful expression of his views.
"The Egyptian authorities must repeal laws which allow people to be thrown in prison just for exercising their right to free speech, be it online or offline.
'We are deeply worried that the Egyptian authorities are now targeting bloggers in their attempts to stifle free speech.
'Sadly this is not confined to Egypt. In countries around the world, governments are targeting bloggers, closing websites and censoring internet searches. The internet is the new front in the battle between those who want to speak out and those who would stop them.'
Karim Amer is the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for writing blogs criticizing Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam. Charges against him included "spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country's reputation", "incitement to hate Islam" and "defaming the President of the Republic".
Over 60,000 people have joined Amnesty's irrepressible.info campaign, highlighting the repression of internet users around the world. Irrepressible.info campaigns against internet repression in all its forms: the blocking of websites, deletion of blogs, restriction of search engines and imprisonment of people simply for posting and sharing information. For more information see http://irrepressible.info.
Reporters Without Borders: “This sentence is a disgrace… a slap in the face”
Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned the four-year prison sentence imposed today by a court in Alexandria on Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman for “inciting hatred of Islam” and insulting President Hosni Mubarak in his blog, for which he used the pseudonym of “Kareem Amer.”
“This sentence is a disgrace,” the press freedom organisation said. “Almost three years ago to the day, President Mubarak promised to abolish prison sentences for press offences. Suleiman’s conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as an effective bulwark against the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”
Reporters Without Borders continued: “As a result of this conviction, which clearly confirms Egypt’s inclusion in our list of Internet enemies, we call on the United Nations to reject Egypt’s request to host the Internet Governance Forum in 2009. After letting Tunisia, another violator of online freedom, host the World Summit on the Information Society, such a choice would completely discredit the UN process for debating the future of the Internet.”
The organisation added: “This heavy sentence is also a slap in the face for the international organisations and governments that support President Mubarak’s policies. It is time the international community took a stand on Egypt’s repeated violations of press freedom and the rights of Internet users.”
Suleiman, who was arrested on 6 November 2006, got three years for inciting hatred of Islam and one year for insulting the president. The judge dismissed the charge of “spreading rumours liable to disturb the peace” which had been included in the prosecution’s indictment. Suleiman’s blogs regularly criticised the government’s religious and authoritarian excesses. He also criticised Egypt’s highest religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law.
Egypt is on the list of the 13 Internet enemies which Reporters Without Borders compiled in 2006. The government wants to host one of the stages of the Internet Governance Forum, a series of UN-sponsored negotiations about how to regulate the Internet (see: http://www.intgovforum.org/).
On 23 February 2004, the newly-elected president of the Union of Egyptian Journalists, Galal Aref, made an important announcement: President Mubarak had just telephoned him and had formally undertaken to abolish prison sentences for journalists in connection with their work. In effect, he was promising a major overhaul of the laws concerning press offences. Three years later, nothing has changed. Journalists still risk being imprisoned despite the semblance of a reform last year.
Reporters Without Borders believes that people writing online, like professional journalists, should enjoy the basic right to freedom of expression and it condemns any use of prison sentences to punish offences linked to the publication of views and information.
Previous updates on Kareem Amer by Reporters Without Borders are available here.
Egypt blogger Kareem Amer prison sentence
Labels: News - International
posted by Ah Yun Wong at
9:46 PM
1 Comments:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 19:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
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