CAIRO: The release of embattled blogger Maikel Nabil on Tuesday evening has ended a “cruel ordeal,” said Amnesty International. “The end of Maikel Nabil's cruel ordeal at the hands of the military council is a cause for real celebration,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director. “Yet 10 months of Maikal's life have been wasted. He should never have been arrested in the first place. His criminal record must now be expunged and he must be compensated for his ordeal,” she continued. “Throughout his trial the Egyptian authorities have behaved with a total lack of respect for his rights. At times they seemed to toy with his life, allowing his health to deteriorate so badly that many feared for his life.” Jailed blogger Nabil, considered by most to be Egypt's first prisoner of conscience after jailed by the military junta early last year, was freed on Tuesday, his brother Mark wrote on Twitter. Mark wrote that Maikel was slightly sick and would be taken home to rest. The young blogger had entered a hunger strike last fall in protest over the use of a military trial against him for what he wrote on a blog post. “Forgive us guys, but Maikel is tired and cant take phone calls and wait for a statement shortly,” wrote Mark on his personal twitter account. Mark had written earlier that he received a call from the warden of Torah prison, where Maikel was held, asking him to come to the prison. “I think they will release Maikel now,” wrote Mark at 5:45 PM local time. The news of his release drew mixed reactions from Egyptians, many of whom did not support Nabil over his calls for normalization with Israel and his statements that he would not fight against the Israelis. Users often called the young blogger a Zionist, with a number of activists demanding he be tried for “racism” and “Zionism.” However, others, especially those who are against the use of military trials against civilians, welcomed the news. Mark was receiving congratulatory messages by the minute on the micro-blogging site. The Egyptian government and military council has received fierce criticism domestically and abroad for their detention and sentencing of Nabil, who was jailed for comments he made in a blog post entitled “The army and the people are not one hand.” On April 10, in a case widely seen as the first of its kind in the post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt, Nabil was sentenced to three years in jail by a military court. The young blogger spent most of his time in jail on a prison hunger strike to protest his treatment in Egypt's judicial and prison systems. Earlier this fall, authorities sent Maikel to a psychiatric hospital after he refused to eat. Doctors and observers said it was a move by the government to distance themselves from the potential death that has faced the young blogger during their care. ** Manar Ammar contributed to this report. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/NUh8e Tags: featured, Free Maikel, Maikel Nabil Section: Egypt, Human Rights, Latest News, Media
