CAIRO: Lawyers attempting to visit imprisoned blogger Kareem Amer at Alexandria s Borg Al-Arab uncovered blatant corruption, according to a release issued on July 18 by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). Amer has been held in Borg Al-Arab for the past 30 months, following a ruling that found him guilty of defaming Islam and the Egyptian president. He is scheduled for a Court of Cassation hearing on Aug. 17. On July 16, the lawyers arrived at Borg Al-Arab prison after acquiring a permit from the General Attorney s Office in Alexandria allowing them to meet with Amer. However upon arrival at the prison, the lawyers were denied their meeting with their client. As the two lawyers sat in the prison s waiting room with their official permits, they saw other visitors being allowed to enter the prison. These visitors, termed VIPs in the press release, had only to present business cards or recommendation letters from influential connections in order to gain entry, the lawyers alleged. This is not the first time lawyers from ANHRI have been prevented from meeting with Amer. In May, they were denied a meeting with him. The lawyers were able to obtain a letter from Amer, only after bribing prison guards. In this letter, Amer disclosed that he had managed to take a look at Borg Al-Arab s prison log book. According to ANHRI s press release, the log had recorded that Kareem refused to come out of his cell to meet the so called Magdi Samaan , a journalist who tried but failed to meet him in July. In response, Amer s letter called this allegation utter fabrication. Until last March, ANHRI lawyers were able to visit Amer. We visit him for emotional and psychological support and to make sure that he is doing fine in prison, says ANHRI project coordinator Abeer Soliman. Moataz El-Fegiery, executive director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies says that the state of prisons is one of the most serious human rights concerns in Egypt. According to El-Fegiery, Egypt s Prosecutor General is responsible, by law, for monitoring situations in prisons. Unfortunately, he doesn t do this job. El-Fegiery adds that the state doesn t allow NGOs to monitor the situation in prisons, only UN human rights groups. This past March, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a report on Kareem Amer, which concluded that the blogger was being arbitrarily detained. The report found his treatment to be a violation of international human rights standards. The report also stated that Amer, who is the first blogger in Egypt to be imprisoned on cases of defamation, is being used as an example to other bloggers in Egypt. In May, ANHRI lawyers submitted a communiqué requesting an investigation into the banned visits. But as of now, no investigation has taken place. Instead, ANHRI lawyers were subject to verbal abuse by prison officers during their most recent visit. Despite attention from international human rights organizations regarding the case of Amer and others detained in Egyptian prisons, little has changed. There are no minimum standards for the human being in these prisons, El-Fegiery says.
