CAIRO: Prominent Egyptian activist and blogger Maikel Nabil, who was granted a pardon by Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi earlier this past week, said in statements that this was the third time he was arrested. He said he was arrested the first time for creating a group against compulsory recruitment by the army, “no to compulsory recruitment,” which called for the abolition of forced conscription and demanding it be made optional or voluntary. He pointed out that this movement enabled him to collect “a lot of information about the army and the armed forces,” which he said made them fear his presence out of prison, “thus was nitpicking and trolling him.” Nabil explained in statements at a press conference held by the Committee for Freedoms at the Journalists Syndicate, on Saturday, that he “was not subjected to any torture in prison, but witnessed other cases of torture in military prisons, and Al-Marg prison, in which he was serving a sentence for insulting the military institution.” He added that his imprisonment by the military council was not because of libel and defamation, but on two charges: “insulting the military institution and promotion of rumors.” He lashed out at the ruling military junta and accused it of “disrupting the revolution.” He added that “they don't protect our homeland … they only protect the former regime.” He denied the accusations against him of being an “agent or loyal” to Israel, especially after issuing statements and speaking to Israeli channels through a phone interview, during and after the revolution and considered his statements to the Israeli media as “normal.” “If I were an agent of Israel, the military judiciary would have charged me with treason,” he said. He stressed that he hoped that the charges against him were dropped, and that he rejects the idea of a pardon, because a pardon “does not acquit, but proves the charges.” 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. Nabil was considered by many to be the first prisoner of conscience since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak on February 11. ** Manar Ammar contributed to this report. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/PHGOW Tags: featured, Maikel Nabil, Mubarak, SCAF Section: Egypt, Latest News
