CAIRO: Egyptian blogger Rami Siyam, also known as Ayoub, was released from jail Thursday following his arrest on Nov. 19 with three other bloggers.Although he was due to be released immediately after his arrest, he was kept in detention by state security due to instructions from higher orders. "The prosecutor's office informed Siyam s lawyer late on Wednesday night that Siyam s release was subject to state security interviews,' blogger Hossam El-Hamalawy, who runs the blog arabawy.net, told The Daily Star Egypt. Siyam, who runs ayoubelmasry.blogspot.com, a blog containing advertisements for human rights activities, was arrested along with three other bloggers when leaving their friend Mohamed El-Sharkawy s house in downtown Cairo around 4 am on Nov. 19. They were leaving my house when they were randomly stopped and rounded up by police in the street. There was no obvious reason for their arrest, El-Sharkawy says in an interview with The Daily Star Egypt. Three of the bloggers were released following questioning at Qasr El-Nil police station, while Siyam was kept in detainment and later transferred to the Belbeis prosecutor's office in the Sharqeya governorate because of a past personal pending case. According to El-Sharkawy, Siyam was incarcerated an extra day after his release order had gone through because he was to be presented to state security for an interview the next day.When The Daily Star Egypt contacted the Ministry of Interior, a ministry official refuted claims that any bloggers had been arrested. The official, who asked not to be identified in this report, indicated he did not know who Siyam was.
