CAIRO: Egyptian activists are angry after a court in the country on Monday said it would try Coptic Christian Alber Saber for blasphemy after he posted an anti-Islam video online that had led to widespread protests in Egypt and across the Islamic world. According to the official MENA news agency, Saber is to begin his trial next Wednesday on charges of “insulting religions.” Activists tell Bikyamasr.com this is part of the double-standards within the government, who have yet to file any charges against Salafist television presenter Khaled Abdallah who showed 15 minutes of the insulting video clip to the public on September 9, which activists and observers say led to the initial protest at the United States Embassy in Cairo. A lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the presenter, but as of Tuesday morning, he has not been charged. An investigation is underway, the public prosecutor has said. Saber is spending 15 days in detention after a number of conservative neighbors called the police on him accusing him of defaming Islam for allegedly posting portions of an anti-Islam clip online that had sparked protests in the country. They also accused him of being an atheist. The residents had gathered outside his house chanting against him until police arrived at his house, but instead of clearing the crowd from the area, they arrested Saber. The rights organizations are also protesting the forced eviction of his family from their home, after Saber's mother received threats followed by the forced eviction. The rights groups are calling for an investigation into the injuries that Saber received in jail when he was held by others who used sharp blades to cut his neck as well as attempts to extract forced confessions. The groups say the police acted “lawlessly" when they broke into the activist's home with “no permission or legal reason" and preventing his family from visiting or even obtaining news on his whereabouts. Among the rights organizations are the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies and the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression. Saber has since been held by police pending an investigation. An online Facebook page in solidarity with the man has been created and accuses the police of torturing him during initial interrogations. “The Egyptian police protects violence and vandalism, and arrests the activist Alber Saber from his house after his house was besieged by some people who threatened to burn it," read a statement published on the Free Alber Saber page. In a video posted on YouTube, the angry mob is seen demanding Saber be apprehended. Hundreds of angry protesters had gathered before police arrived. As Saber was hauled to the police van, insults were heard being hurled at the man, with many calling for his death due to him being an infidel. “I don't want to live in a country that arrests people for being atheists," one Egyptian journalist told Bikyamasr.com. “An angry mob is attacking a man and police arrest the man and not the mob? That isn't right." According to the Facebook page, Saber has no lawyer and is being detained for 15 days by police as an investigation takes place. It comes on the heels of massive protests and clashes in Egypt that began September 11 when protesters took down the American flag at the US Embassy in Cairo. Clashes then erupted the following evening and although calm has returned to downtown Cairo near the embassy, there are growing fears that Christians and secularists could be attacked similarly to Saber for their beliefs.
