22 Nov 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
The Muslim Brotherhood has said that more than 1,000 of its members and eight of its candidates have been arrested ahead of next week’s parliamentary elections. Over recent days the group’s supporters have clashed with security forces in several cities. The Muslim Brotherhood is banned from the elections but it bypasses restrictions by putting up their candidates as independents. This tactic proved successful in the 2005 elections and the brotherhood currently control a third of the seats in parliament. The arrests have been criticised as part of a wider government crackdown on opposition electioneering.
17 Nov 2010 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features
Kareem Amer freed after serving a prison term for insulting Islam and defaming Egypt’s president. Ashraf Khalil reports
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17 Nov 2010 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
Online free expression activists around the world are rejoicing at the news that jailed Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer has been freed and had returned to his family’s Alexandria home. Amer won the Hugo Young Award for Journalism at the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression awards in 2007.
Amer’s four-year jail sentence actually ended on 5 November, but the Egyptian authorities held on to him for nearly two weeks extra — prompting protests from Amnesty International and others. The Egyptian government — which grants itself sweeping powers under the so-called “emergency laws”— has a history of acting in defiance of its own judiciary. This includes openly ignoring court-ordered releases, or releasing a suspect and then immediately re-arresting him.
So the delay in Amer’s release had supporters worried that the police would simply keep him indefinitely.
Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007, having already served two years in custody, for a package of charges that include insulting Islam, encouraging sedition and defaming President Hosni Mubarak.
His crimes: a series of blog posts that bluntly expressed his atheist beliefs and his criticism of the state of Islamic discourse. His case has already prompted a long-running solidarity campaign by supporters who consider him a “political prisoner”“, guilty of nothing more than thought crime.
Amer has made no public statements since his release. According his supporters, he has requested a bit of quiet and privacy with his family. It remains to be seen whether he will renew his writings, or whether the Egyptian police — particularly the notorious Alexandria contingent — will leave him alone.
11 Nov 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by his blogging name, Kareem Amer, was due to be freed on 5 November after completing a four-year jail sentence for criticising the government. Instead, he has been held illegally for the past five days, and has reportedly received a severe beating from an official at the headquarters of the internal security department in Alexandria. During his sentence, Amer’s letters have chronicled episodes of solitary confinement and torture.
