Egypt: Release atheist jailed for critical internet posts

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

URGENT ACTION: EGYPTIAN ARRESTED FOR CRITICAL INTERNET POSTS

September 28, 2012

On 13 September 2012 Alber Saber Ayad was arrested at his home in Cairo, Egypt, accused of “defamation of religion” and “spreading false news” in relation to internet posts he made which criticised religion. He has been reportedly ill-treated while in detention. He is a prisoner of conscience arrested solely for his exercising his right to freedom of expression. 

 

On 12 September angry groups of men surrounded Alber Saber Ayad’s house in eastern Cairo, where he lives with his mother and sister, calling for his death and accusing him of heresy and atheism. They believed Alber Saber Ayad, a 27-year-old computer science graduate, had promoted a film reportedly made in the US which satirized Islam and the Prophet which many found offensive. 

His mother called the police for protection but when they eventually arrived the following day they arrested Alber Saber Ayad and took him to El Marg police station and confiscated his personal computer and CDs.

Alber Saber Ayad told his lawyers that while in detention, a police officer in El Marg Prison incited other detainees to attack him. The detainees beat Alber Saber Ayad and cut him with a razor blade along his neck. He was then taken to another room where he was again beaten by 20 prisoners and forced to remain standing throughout the night. His lawyers fear for his safety in prison and outside when he is released. 

They also fear for the safety of his mother and sister who have been threatened and forced to leave their home which continues to be surrounded by angry mobs.

Alber Saber Ayad has been charged with contempt of religion because of internet posts and videos in which he describes his views and criticism of religion. These were found while he was in detention. 

He was initially detained for four days but on 16 September his detention was renewed by the Public Prosecutor for another 15 days. His lawyers challenged this renewal which was rejected although they have managed to have him transferred to another prison for his safety His next court session has been postponed until 17 October.

 

Please write immediately in English, Arabic or your own language:

Urging the Egyptian authorities to release Alber Saber Ayad’s immediately and unconditionally as Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression;

Calling on them to ensure Alber Saber Ayad and his family are protected from further harassment and threats;

Calling on them to open a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into Alber Saber Ayad’s treatment n detention and to bring those found responsible to justice.

 

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 9 NOVEMBER 2012 TO:

Minister of Interior

Ahmed Gamal El Din

Ministry of Interior

El Sheikh Rihan St

Cairo,

Egypt

Fax: +202 2795 9494

Prosecutor General

Counsellor Abd El-Megeed Mahmoud

Dar al-Qadha al-'Ali
Ramses Street
Cairo
Egypt
Fax: +202 2 577 4716

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

URGENT ACTION

Egyptian arrested for critical internet posts

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Additional Information

Alber Saber Ayad has been charged with defamation of Islam and Christianity, insulting the divine and satirizing religious rituals and sanctities and the prophets under articles 98, 160 and 161 of the Egyptian Penal Code. The charges carry a punishment of up to 6 years imprisonment and a fine of 500 Egyptian Pounds (82 US dollars). He has also been charged of “spreading false news” under Article 102 of the Penal Code. 

There have also been other recent cases involving blasphemy charges and which Amnesty International is still investigating. These include the case of a Shia man accused of desecrating a mosque and charges of defaming Christianity reportedly brought against two Muslim men for burning the Bible. There are also reports that a six year sentence of a Christian man accused of posting pictures on the internet which were deemed offensive to Islam.

The charges against Alber Saber Ayad are reminiscent of practices under former president Hosni Mubarak to limit freedom of expression. Karim Amer, a blogger, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for criticizing then president Mubarak and Egypt’s al-Azhar religious authorities in his blog. 

One of his charges for which he was convicted was “inciting strife and defaming Muslims on the internet by describing the Prophet of Islam and his comrades as murdered, which disturbs national peace. 

In November 2008, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) declared Karim Amer’s detention “arbitrary” on the grounds that is violates freedoms guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and that he should be released.

Film clips purportedly made by a US-based anti-Islam propagandist were translated into Arabic and posted on the Internet under the title of "Innocence of Muslims". They depict the prophet Muhammad and other figures revered by Muslims in an insulting manner and have deeply offended many Muslims. 

The clips have been cited as the reason for a series of protests in several Muslim countries in front of embassies and other places associated with the USA and other Western states. Some of these protests have been violent and have resulted in deaths and injuries to protesters and members of the security forces.

International human rights law protects expression of ideas that are offensive. Criticism of religions and other beliefs and ideas is a vital component of the right to freedom of expression. And laws -- such as blasphemy laws -- that criminalize criticism of (or insult to) religious beliefs violate freedom of expression. Such criticism, insult or mockery does not interfere with the individual believer’s freedom of religion, however offensive they may find it.

Media Muzzled for Egyptian Elections but Blogosphere Thrives

The Huffington Post
Media Muzzled for Egyptian Elections, but Blogosphere Thrives

December 7, 2010

Nadia Abu-Fadil

It started with a clampdown on domestic, private, "independent," opposition media and bloggers, and turned to harassment of foreign news organizations, under the pretext they disseminated falsehoods about Egypt's legislative elections.

The first round of parliamentary elections Nov. 28 that secured the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) clean sweep of seats, was a prelude to next year's presidential ballot.

So the media got a taste of what to expect in 2011, while the runoff Dec. 5 just nailed it shut.

The result: The NDP secured its grip on the upcoming presidential election by sidelining the candidacy of constitutionally independent candidates, and allowed aspirants from marginal opposition parties to run, thereby providing an appearance of "a democratic picture" with a semblance of diversity, Arab media reported.

"Will Mubarak run as in independent candidate?" columnist Maamoun Fendi asked sarcastically in the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

Meanwhile, the BBC Arabic Service sent a protest letter to Egyptian Information Minister Anas El Fiki decrying harassment of its local and foreign correspondents assigned to cover the event.

It said filming for one of its programs in Egypt had been halted, that production companies working with the BBC in Egypt had been threatened by a senior official in the state-run media, and that a BBC correspondent had been put under surveillance by Egyptian security.

The letter also referred to strongly-worded criticism of the BBC by the NDP days before the elections and came in the wake of complaints about the potential for vote rigging, ballot box stuffing, bribes, and muzzling of opposition media -- all of which materialized, according to various reports.

The pan-Arab daily Al Hayat headlined with "NDP wins in Egypt... but new parliament loses local, international credibility."

It said the pre-election mood reflected a step backwards as the NDP slapped restrictions on the private media after being skewered by those outlets, prompting Egyptians to assert that these media had replaced political parties. It said:

The ruling party also went on the offensive by criticizing Egyptian talk shows and foreign media coverage of the elections for being biased. Additionally, the elections saw a marked change in the U.S. administration's policies under President Barack Obama, with observers noting that the Egyptian-American spring was about to end.

An op-ed in the same paper said: "While the leaked (Wikileaks) documents demonstrated how open the world is, the Egyptian elections announced how closed Egypt is."

Enterprising citizen journalists documented the vote rigging with their mobile devices and posted countless video clips on YouTube. In one instance, a man is seen marking ballots by hand.



Al Masry Al Youm newspaper published pictures of a man stuffing ballots into boxes to his left and right with both hands.

The elections coverage was extensive in Egyptian and Arab media. It was the lead story in various outlets and shared star billing with the latest WikiLeaks bombshell, but invariably, made most front pages and got ample air time on satellite channels.

Opposition papers and dissident websites focused on stories about the ruling party "stealing the election" and how the two main opposition parties -- the banned Moslem Brotherhood and Wafd -- had been creamed.

A common thread was how most media used the words "balataja" or "baltajia" to mean hoods and thugs threatening voters, candidates, delegates and monitors -- if any were allowed in the polling stations.

Wael Abbas, a dissident blogger, has been outspoken in his opposition to the regime and has been handsomely rewarded for his anti-government activities.


Journalist Ibrahim Issa, editor of Al Dustour, was fired for attacking the Mubarak government and had earlier been taken off a TV program in a bid to silence him in the run up to the election.

But he's still very present online, and anyone wanting to read his scathing criticism can do so on the paper's alternate website.

In an editorial, he lashed out at the election results, but stressed that what occurred should not come as a surprise.

"Only naïve people expect the vulture [the regime] to let go of the baby chicks [i.e. the Egyptian people]," he wrote.

Al-Dustour also ran a cartoon (center column, second from bottom) of a policeman bashing a TV set, a radio, a cell phone, as well as the Facebook and Twitter logos, representing media that broadcast or published news on election forgeries.

The government justified its actions by painting dissidents as enemies of the state whose aim was to undermine its security.

But Egyptians are becoming increasingly aware of means to circumvent restrictions and to access information from various sources.

Citizen journalists and social media users have definitely been filling a void and going to mirror sites whenever possible.

The impact may still be limited, in that not everyone is literate, much less computer literate, in the country of 80 million, and with the means and access to the Internet, but citizen media are making a dent.

Although blogger Kareem Amer was released after a four-year jail term, the message was clear: shut up, or else. He hasn't been deterred and has become even more vocal since his release by urging dissidents to keep at it.

The Egyptian blogosphere is still very noisy and in competition with an increasingly noisier Arab blogosphere, where the more governments try to clamp down, the more activists become enthusiastic about standing up to repression.

The government may have shut down religious channels, limited live political broadcasts and used licensing requirements to silence texting services, but this hasn't halted the political discourse and will likely fuel more dissent.

Blogger beaten & kept in detention after completing 4-year jail sentence

Reporters Sans Frontières - Reporters Without Borders
Blogger beaten and kept in detention after completing four-year jail sentence

10 November 2010

Reporters Without Borders condemns last night’s disgraceful mistreatment of Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the blog name of Kareem Amer, and calls for his immediate release. The detained blogger should have been freed on 5 November on completing a four-year jail sentence.

Kareem Amer was transferred from Burj Al Arab prison to Alexandria on 6 November with the apparent aim of releasing him. But last night, an official reportedly gave him a severe beating at the headquarters of the internal security department in Alexandria. Detained since 6 November 2006, he has been held illegally for the past four days.

“The criminal behaviour of the security forces is shocking and unacceptable,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Kareem Amer has already suffered enough in prison. This mistreatment must be investigated and the person responsible punished. The Egyptian authorities must also free this blogger at once and stop flouting law. His continuing detention is a complete violation of legality. It is time for his ordeal to end.”

Gamal Eid, the head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, accused the interior ministry of “sadistic practices against an unarmed prisoner” and wondered how the authorities could continue to “beat and hold him illegally” when his release had now become mandatory.

Arrested in November 2006 for criticising the government’s religious and authoritarian excesses in his blog (www.karam903.blogspot.com), Kareem Amer was sentenced on 22 February 2007 to three years in prison for inciting hatred of Islam and another year for insulting the president. His blog entries also criticised discrimination against women and the Sunni University of Al-Azhar where he studied law until he was expelled and sued by his professors. He was previously arrested for similar reasons on 2005.

Kareem Amer has been subjected to appalling conditions in detention. In letters he has described being put in solitary confinement for 10 days and “physical torture that was covered up by the prison doctor, who altered my medical file.” His request for a new trial was rejected in 2009. His request for early release, for which he qualified a year ago on completing three quarters of his jail term, was also rejected.

Countless protests have been organised by the Free Kareem Coalition during past four years to press for his release. Reporters Without Borders awarded him its “Cyber-Freedom” prize in December 2007. That year, Reporters Without Borders demonstrated outside the Egyptian embassy in Paris and the Egyptian stand at the world tourism trade fair in Paris. Last year, Reporters Without Borders staged another demonstration in support of Kareem Amer in front of the Louvre Pyramid in Paris.

Egypt is ranked 127th out of 178 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index and is on the Reporters Without Borders list of “Enemies of the Internet,” above all because of its harassment of bloggers.