Following the extension of the imprisonment of Alaa Abdel-Fattah for a further fifteen days, the prominent Egyptian blogger has sent a message to his supporters from his prison cell, asking them to celebrate his 30th birthday in Tahrir Square on 18...
CATEGORY: Egypt
Alaa: Arrest of blogger mobilises opposition to Egypt’s military rulers
Prolific Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah was detained on Sunday after refusing to be interrogated by a military investigator, insisting on his right to be tried before a civil court. Rasha Abdulla reports Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah...
Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah: A return to Mubarak’s prisons
Cross posted from Felix Arabia I did not expect that the very same experience would be repeated after five years. After a revolution in which we have ousted the tyrant, I go back to jail? The memories of being incarcerated have returned, all the...
Report: Maikel Nabil Sanad transferred to psychiatric hospital
Sahar Maher, human rights activist and a member of the Free Maikel campaign, has told Index that authorities are transferring Maikel Nabil to a "mental hospital", where he would be "put under watch for 45 days to make sure his mental situation is...

Blogger reaches 50th day of hunger strike
Maikel Nabil Sanad is today entering his 50th day of hunger strike. The Egyptian blogger has been abstaining from food since 23 August in protest of a three-year sentence handed to him by a military court on charges of "insulting the armed forces"...

Egypt: Journalists strike against censorship
Several Egyptian writers and journalists published blank columns in the country's newspapers, in protest against the "military interference" of the press. A number of independent writers, including Belal Fadl, Naglaa Bedir and Tarek...
Blogger passes 40th day of hunger strike
It's Maikel Nabil Sanad's 26th birthday but he is in no celebratory mood. When I arrive at El Marg prison north of Cairo during visiting hours on Saturday 1 October, I can barely hide my shock at seeing his bony physique. Maikel is wearing a...
Post revolution worries
Egypt’s post-revolutionary honeymoon appears to be over. The country’s euphoria and pride at the historic public uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak has given way to a summer of rising pessimism. Relations have deteriorated between...
Raid on Egyptian Al Jazeera offshoot marks new media crackdown
The Cairo offices of Al-Jazeera Mubasher (Direct), an affiliate of the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera International news network, were ransacked by Egyptian security forces early this week. In a raid on the channel reminiscent of an earlier raid on...
Libya: Overcoming the challenges
The world has been watching with bated breath as a third Arab authoritarian regime collapses. Crowds of jubilant Libyans continue to throng the capital's Green Square to celebrate the end of Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year reign of tyranny and...