MEDIA: EGYPT, BLOGGER BEATEN IN PRISON, RSF
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, NOVEMBER 20 - A young Egyptian sentenced
to four years of imprisonment for an offence against Islam and
against President Hosni Mubarak in his blog has been beaten in
prison and put into an isolated cell, the organisation Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) announced today.
Abdel Karim Suleiman, a former law student, became in February
this year the first case of a sentence in Egypt for having
expressed on the Internet his opinions in eight articles written
since 2004.
RSF said that Suleiman had written in a letter from the prison
that he was arrested, beaten and put into an isolated cell with
scarce food and water. "I was subjected to a crude, non-humane
and degrading treatment," he denounced in a letter cited by the
Paris-based organisation. RSF requested the release of Suleiman,
known also as Kareem Amer, detained in the prison of Borg el
Arab, near Alexandria.
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, which represents
Suleiman, affirms in a declaration that a prison guard and
another prisoner have beaten the young person, knocking one of
his teeth out. In one of the incriminated articles, Suleiman, a
moderate Muslim, accused Azhar, the highest instance in Sunni
Islam, of propagating extremism.
Internet is one of the few means to express disagreement in
Egypt, where almost all information organs are controlled by the
Government and under a constant threat of repressions. Numerous
journalists are on trial for having "offended" Mubarak, under
poor health conditions, according to rumours. (ANSAmed).
2007-11-20 18:43