Human rights activists called a Cairo court's decision to sentence a web designer to one year's imprisonment for posting a poem on the Internet a "dangerous precedent". Khaled Dawoud reports Web designer and Al-Ahram Weekly web master, Shohdy Surur, was sentenced to one year imprisonment by a Cairo misdemeanours court on Sunday for posting a poem on the Internet written by his late father, Naguib Surur, more than 30 years ago. Shohdy has been ordered to pay LE200 in bail, pending his appeal. According to the court, the publication of the well-known, politically critical poem violated publication laws aimed at protecting "public morality". Known as the "Ummiyyat", the poem's full title is sexually explicit, as is much of its content. Although written more than 30 years ago, the Ummiyyat remains a very popular poem, particularly within leftist intellectual circles. Because of its sexually explicit language, it was never published in a book; the late Surur, however, recorded it with his own voice on audio cassettes while sitting among friends, and copies of it can still be found today. Although Egypt does not have particular publication laws regarding the Internet, the court seems to have concluded that it could apply the same laws that penalise publishing sexually explicit material in other forms of media. Nonetheless, the case against Shohdy is unprecedented. In the past, the Vice Police (Mabaheth Al-Adab) arm of the Interior Ministry has ordered the arrest of a number of young men who had posted their nude pictures on gay net sites. No action, however, has ever been taken against publishing material of a political nature. Surur told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was "happy with the sentence". With a bitter smile on his face, he explained that, "my father explicitly predicted in that same poem (Ummiyyat) that the oppression he personally experienced would also happen to his son. I'm glad that I will now be able to defend him and what he wrote." Shohdy believes the poem, written in the aftermath of the June 1967 War with Israel, was a cry of outrage at the corruption, nepotism and despotism that led to the humiliating destruction of the Egyptian armed forces within six days, and the occupation of Sinai. Is it then, asks Shohdy, that these very ills remain pertinent in today's Egypt, "and that this is why it [the poem] bothers them [the authorities] so much?" Shohdy was arrested in late November and held in prison at a police station for three days. While being interrogated by prosecutors he denied that the site, www.wadada.net, on which the poem was posted, belonged to him. "In cyberspace," Shohdy said, "it is virtually impossible to prove that any particular site belongs to a particular person." Even before his arrest, he said, the poem was so popular that it was posted on several Internet sites. "I can't be held responsible for all those who decide to publish the poem on their sites. It seems I am now defending the independence of the world wide web against the meddling of all the unjust regimes in this world." He felt confident that "millions of users will stand by my side. I encourage users to search the web for the poem, and judge for themselves if it should be seen as pornography." Shohdy believes that the authorities "are trying to create the illusion that they control cyberspace, and to scare people from using it to express their views. That, of course, is impossible," he said, "and they will never be able to do it." Particularly ironic, according to Shohdy, is that 10 years ago the state-owned General Egyptian Book Organisation decided to publish his late father's entire body of work, "and at the time, nobody remembered the Ummiyyat poem or the controversy it created." Lawyer Hafez Abu Saada, the secretary- general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, supported Shohdy's viewpoint. "Even if we assumed that the site belonged to Shohdy, how can the court be certain that it was not somebody else who posted the poem?" he asked. Abu Saada added that Internet hackers could easily enter any site and change its content -- as such, "it is nearly impossible to prove who wrote what on the Internet." Lawyers cite defence arguments in web- related cases in the US, such as the 25 February case of US vrs. ElcomSoft (a Russian software company). In its motion to dismiss the indictment, the defence argued that no state had territorial jurisdiction over the Internet. "Indeed," the argument went, "the places most analgous to the Internet, in a juridictional sense, are outer space and the international waters." In any case, Abu Saada said, and even if it was assumed that the site belonged to Shody, "the court's ruling represents a serious infringement on freedom of expression, and sets a dangerous precedent." Abu Saada said the government has already been placing restrictions on freedom of expression when it comes to newspapers and books. "Now such restrictions have been extended to the Internet, with the government trying to send a clear message that it is watching everything." Especially surprising for Abu Saada was that "while he was alive, the father was not sent to prison for writing this poem. Now, his son is facing the possibility of going to prison for it." Sayed El-Bahrawi, professor of modern Arabic poetry at Cairo University, emphasised that the late Surur was "an important and influential poet. Nothing that he wrote could ever be judged from the perspective of being pornography, or offending public morals. Even Ummiyyat, with its sexually explicit language, is a political poem in every respect." El-Bahrawi urged Egypt's intellectuals, poets and novelists to express solidarity with Surur's son, "and stand against this onslaught on freedom of creativity." Sonaallah Ibrahim, a renowned Egyptian novelist, described the ruling against Shohdy as "a disgrace". He urged "all writers and intellectuals to strongly resist this attempt at stifling freedom of creativity and expression." The sentence against Shohdy comes just a week after a court in Tunis sentenced an opposition journalist to two years and four months prison time for publishing an article critical of the regime on his own Internet web site. Shohdy told Al-Ahram Weekly that although the sentence against him was clearly a violation of freedom of expression, he was grateful that the punishment was not handed down as ruthlessly as it might have been in many other Arab countries. "At least in Egypt," he said, "I have the right to appeal the court's decision." A Cairo Court of Appeal has schedulled its hearing of the case for 26 August. Related stories: Web cats 29 Nov. - 5 Dec. 2001 Rebel with a cause 22 - 28 October 1998 Naguib Surur and his works 22 - 28 October 1998 Related links: Wadada.net/surur Naguib Surur's selected works ElcomSoft Reply to Government Opposition in US v. ElcomSoft (Feb. 25, 2002)
