CAIRO: Two organizations are calling on the Minister of Justice Mamdouh Marei to arbitrate in the case of Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman Amer, the blogger who has been under arrest since November on charges of defaming the president. Reporters Without Borders and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information wrote to the justice minister urging him "follow to this case closely and ensure that this young blogger is released soon . Amer's court case at the Moharram Beik Court in Alexandria was adjourned on Jan. 17 and postponed to Jan. 25 after persistent please from defense attorneys. The blogger has been in jail since Nov. 6 and faces up to nine years for posting articles critical of Islam on his blog (www.karam903.blogspot.com). A former student of Al-Azhar University, Amer, 22 is currently detained in Al-Hadra prison in Alexandria for spreading data and malicious rumors that disrupt public security ; defaming the president of Egypt ; incitement to overthrow the regime upon hatred and contempt ; and incitement to hate Islam . Accused of railing against Islam, he was expelled from the University in March 2006 and reportedly questioned by Al-Azhar professors before he was arrested by state authorities. Reporters Without Borders also called on Egyptian authorities to respect the International Covenant for Civil and Political Right. ". Article 151 of the Egyptian Constitution stipulates that any agreement signed and ratified by Egypt becomes part of domestic law and applied like any other legislation. Egypt signed the International Covenant for Civil and Political Right, in which articles 18 and 19 clearly stipulate everyone's right to freedom of expression, opinion, thought, conscience and religion. Subsequently, no one should ever be imprisoned for a press offence or for the views they express. The letter added: We would also like to draw your attention to the harsh conditions in which this young blogger is being held and the worrying state of his health. He has been in solitary confinement for more than two months. This has left him very weak and has affected him psychologically. Amer is targeted simply because he expressed his own views, Executive Director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Gamal Eid, said. "We call upon advocates of freedom of expression in Egypt and all over the globe to support Kareem Amer in his prospected trial based on biased investigations by the Public Prosecutor, Gamal Eid said. The defense is reportedly planning to hold a demonstration in Amer's support in the next court session on Jan. 25. Freedom of expression is a basic human right. We believe that Kareem Amer has the absolute right to express his personal views. This case is a clear violation of universal human rights principles, Amer s lawyer Rawda Ahmed, said in a previous interview. The Daily Star Egypt had previously attempted to contact the Ministry of Interior concerning Amer's status. Several faxes of queries have not been answered and a ministry official who answered a request for a phone interview declined to comment. On Monday, The Daily Star Egypt again attempted to reach the Ministry for official comment on the Amer's case as well as other pending queries involving arrests and alleged torture. At press time, the Ministry of Interior had not returned calls. Meanwhile, Amer's case is beginning to garner international attention. A rally was held on Jan. 12 in front of the Egyptian embassy in Washington DC to call for his release. Organized by a group called the DC Coalition for Blog Freedom, the rally urged the Egyptian government release Alexandria native Amer and protects his right to free speech. A statement by the group said "Because of the urgency of his plight, DC-area residents of diverse backgrounds are staging a peaceful rally in front of the Egyptian Embassy s cultural affairs branch in DuPont Circle to defend Amer s right to blog freely and to call for his immediate release from jail. Although the protestors presented a petition to an embassy official who came out to meet them, when The Daily Star Egypt contacted the Foreign Ministry there appeared to be no plans to take any further steps concerning the matter. Nevertheless, the issue of blogger freedoms in Egypt and around the world is continuing to raise concern. Facing a "deteriorating state of civil society in the Arab world and a growing number of arrests of bloggers and intern activists, journalists and representatives from civil society organizations are now calling upon Arab governments to enact new regulations for online information exchange. The proposed new regulations would criminalize email spying and sharing of information on Internet users between state security and telecommunications companies. The suggested criteria were agreed upon at a high-level seminar titled "Internet Freedom in the Arab World held in Cairo in late December. Organized by local human rights organization The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the seminar suggested providing special protection to Internet journalists, and limiting the control of the Supreme Press Council.. However, while the proposed regulations are "good ideas , it is highly unlikely that Arab governments will agree to introduce new legislation on freedom of expression on the Internet, Naila Hamdy, Professor in Journalism and Mass Communication at AUC told The Daily Star Egypt. Hamdy also argued that bloggers and civil society activists often face intimidation and arrest for their online writing due to the fact that they are not protected by press laws. This however, should not prevent the public and reporters from mainstream media from paying close attention to their writing. "Bloggers and activists expressing their views on society and politics in online forums are not perceived as journalists which often results in them being discredited by the government and the public, she says. Yet she thinks that Internet activists introduce important social and political topics to the public debate - issues that prestigious newspapers would otherwise not report. "Take the recent sexual harassment incident in Downtown Cairo during Eid, for example. If it wasn't for the bloggers, this social illness might have never have found its place on the national agenda, Hamdy says.
