CAIRO: Alexandria head judge Abdel Fattah Mourad, who is pushing to block 21 Egyptian websites and blogs on the basis that they 'defame Egypt and the Egyptian President,' has amended his lawsuit in the Administrative Judiciary Court, adding a demand to shut down 29 similar more website on the same grounds. Like the previous 21 sites, the majority of the latest culprits belong to local and international rights groups, outspoken bloggers, and news agencies including The Egyptian Association for Combating Torture, Hisham Mubarak Law Center, El-Ghad Newspaper, the Salamander and Arabawy blogs. According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) Mourad is accusing the directors of two local human rights organizations and an Egyptian blogger of blackmail and allegedly demanding LE 50,000 pounds. Lawyers Ahmad Seif and Gamal Eid, the directors of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the HRinfo as well as blogger Amr Gharbeia were interrogated last week at the North Cairo Prosecutors office on the charges. Eid stressed that the case is "totally fabricated. "HRinfo considers the continuity of the judge's campaign against the organization and freedom of expression an attempt to turn eyes from his own plagiarism of our reports. We have started the procedures of removing his legal immunity to prosecute him for this, Eid told The Daily Star Egypt. In March HRinfo filed a lawsuit against Mourad for violating the organization's copyright by allegedly including information from a report on internet freedom issued by the organization in his own book on blogging procedures in the Middle East without citations. A few weeks into the lawsuit Mourad countered with a legal case against the website of HRinfo and 20 other sites, most of whom are supporters of the organization, arguing that they are 'terrorist sites' that 'blaspheme Egypt and the reputation of the Egyptian President and Arab leaders.' Furthermore, Mourad is accusing Eid and Egyptian bloggers Alaa Seif and Manal Bahey El Din Hassan, moderators of http://www.manalaa.net, of defamation. In a hearing on May 5, the court announced plans to investigate the contents of the now 50 websites to determine whether or not they damage Egypt's reputation. The results of the investigation will be presented in the next case hearing on June 9.
