CAIRO: Jailed Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah has a new ally: the United Nations. The embattled activist and blogger, detained late last month for 15 days after refusing to be investigated by a military prosecutor, on Friday saw the UN human rights office call for the Egyptian military to release Fattah. According to Rupert Colville, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman, said that Egypt must “guarantee full respect for the freedom of expression” some 9 months after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February. In comments to reporters on Friday in Geneva, Colville said that the organization is “concerned about what appears to be a diminishing public space for freedom of expression and association” in Egypt. Colville, however, did not mention jailed blogger Maikel Nabil, in prison since early last summer and currently into his third month of a hunger strike in protest against military trials. But the UN agency did call on the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) to end the country's three decades old emergency laws and drop military trials against civilians. Fattah, one of Egypt's earliest bloggers served a sentence in jail before, for his participation in the 2006 judiciary protests, where the rights community came out in support of the judges who were calling for the independence of the judicial system. On Sunday, Fattah reportedly refused to be interrogated by the military court, rejecting its legal legitimacy. He was sentenced to 15 days in state custody pending further investigation, according to the Al-Nadeem Center for Victims of Violence in Cairo. Amnesty International reported that a ‘public complaint' and video allegedly has come forward showing Fattah threw rocks during the protests, but nothing has been made public. “The summoning of two activists by military prosecutors is a warning that Egypt's armed forces are cracking down on criticism, including of their handling of the Maspero violence,” said Amnesty International in the statement, in reference to activist Bahaa Saber, who also was summoned on Sunday, but released. The summoning announcement on October 26 came on the same day that United States President Barak Obama called to urge the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Hussein Tantawi, to urge him to bring an end to the practice of trying civilians in military courts. BM
