Submitted by basem — Wed, 10/29/2008 - 18:18
Two more bloggers arrested
CAIRO, October 28, 2008 (ANHRI/IFEX) – On 28 October 2008, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) announced that the Egyptian security forces have arrested two more bloggers. The arrests of Abd Altawab Mahmoud, who runs the blog "Alhayat Alsa'ida" (http://ragabhpl.blogspot.com), and Khalifa Ebaid, who runs the blog "Ana Mathoon" in Fayoum city, have increased the numbers of bloggers currently in custody to three. Another blogger has been expelled from his university campus.
Read More:
http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/alerts/5013-egypt-two-more-bloggers-arrest...
Blogger Ahmed Mohsen
After being detained for 15 days under investigation, the Egyptian blogger Ahmed Mohsen is to still imprisoned, as he is accused of “Exploiting the democratic climate to overthrow the government”
Mohsen was arrested on April 29th, 2009, after a State Security force broke into his house in Fayoum govern-ate (North) and searched it. As Mohsen was already moved to Upper Egypt, a police officer summoned him to the prosecution office in Fayoum.
Read More:
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/17/egypt-a-blogger-is-beh...
Blogger Abu fagr remains detained despite eight release orders
Next Tuesday will mark one week since the eighth release order has been made for Egyptian blogger Mos'ad Suleiman Hassan (a.k.a. Mos'ad Abu Fagr); Despite that fact, Fagr remains locked at a police station in El Arish (North Sinai).
Fagr, a Sinai activist and novelist has a blog called Wedna Ne3eesh (We Want to Live), where he writes about the demands and life of the Bedouins of Sinai, as well as the citizenship rights they seek. Abu Fagr was arrested on 26 December, 2007, following the Egyptian government's attempt to take over houses in Rafah and the demonstrations which succeeded them.
Read More:
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2009/04/13/egypt-blogger-abu-fagr...
Sinai blogger remains in detention despite eighth release order
The Ministry of Interior has renewed the detention of writer and activist Mosaad Abu Fagr despite his having obtained a court release order — the eighth since his arrest in December 2007. Abu Fagr's blog Wedna Naeesh (We Want to Live) reports, in an April 12, 2009 posting, that five days after being moved from Cairo Abu Zaabal Prison to a police station in north Sinai — as part of routine release procedures — the writer still has not been freed. On April 19, the blog reported that Abu Fagr had been taken to Alexandria's Borg El-Arab Prison “after the interior ministry refused to implement the release order issued by the Ismailia Appeals Court.” Abu Fagr's wife is quoted as saying on the blog that the interior ministry's determination to keep her husband in detention is “legally unjustifiable and a flagrant attack on freedom and human rights.”
Read More:
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=21204
Egypt is one of 12 ‘internet enemies’, says report
Egypt is among 12 countries which systematically repress internet users, says rights groups Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “The vitality of the Egyptian blogosphere on the international scene is far from being an advantage for the bloggers involved, who are the most hounded in the world,” RSF says in its report “Internet Enemies” which, in addition to Egypt, describes restrictions placed on internet users in Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Roughly 10 million of Egypt's population of over 75 million are internet users. “Despite the government's efforts to make computers more affordable, the internet penetration rate remains low at 12.9 percent,” the report says, while nonetheless pointing out that there were twice as many ADSL users in 2008 as there were in 2007.
Read More:
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=20403
Diaa Eddin Gad Held in Detention Somewhere in Egypt
Egyptian blogger Diaa Eddin Gad remains in an unknown location since his arrest on Feb. 6, which has provoked the ire of rights groups who have repeatedly called on the Egyptian government to either charge the activist or release him. Gad is the most notable blogger currently in custody for speaking out against Cairo's handling of Israel's 23-day war on Gaza. The international community has been all but silent on Gad's detention, unlike the outcry of popular support that arose for German-Egypt activist Philip Rizk – who was arrested on the same day and released four days later.
The 23-year-old student whose writings on his blog, "An Angry Voice," had been critical of Egypt's tacit support of Israel's attacks on Gaza and of Egypt's decision to close its Rafah border crossing giving Palestinians nowhere to escape the onslaught, which killed over 1,400 Palestinians, many of them women and children, and wounded more than 5,000 others.
"Apparently it's not enough for the Egyptian government to imprison its own critics," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "It is now intent on silencing Egyptians who criticize Israel as well."
It is very likely he is being tortured. Gamal Eid, the Executive Director at ANHRI, says Egypt has returned to the dark days of state-sponsored torture, showing that the government is unwilling to change its stance toward torture. "The return to using these infamous places is dangerous, and the most dangerous thing about this case is that the person has never been involved or even suspected of being involved in acts of violence," he said.
Read More:
http://www.metimes.com/International/2009/03/11/blogger_held_in_detentio...
Egyptian regime releases detained blogger
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have released a 22-year-old Egyptian blogger and activist after nearly seven weeks in detention, an Egyptian human rights group said on Saturday. Police detained Diaa Eddin Gad on February 6 outside his home in the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya. London-based rights group Amnesty International said in February that his incommunicado detention in an unknown location put him at danger of torture.
"Dia was released (Friday) at dawn... He was ill-treated in the period where we did not know where he was being held," said Gamal Eid, director of the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Eid said police beat Gad in the car immediately after detaining him and during his detention in State Security offices. Police beat and kicked him, threatened to electrocute him, and electrocuted others in front of him, according to Eid.
Voices of the Street
Over the past few years, public protests have shifted focus from venting about foreign events to expressing domestic discontent. Leaders of three protest movements talk about their roles as agitators for change.
By Dina Basiony
Egypt Today November 2008
Read More:
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8234