Egypt keeps blogger in jail past release deadline

Kareem Suleiman, the first blogger in Egypt to face a court trial for what he published online, was due to be released from prison term on Friday after four years of incarceration.

From the Boing Boing post in 2007:

He was charged with "inciting hatred of Islam" and insulting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his blog, where he wrote under the pseudonym of "Kareem Amer": Link (Arabic), here is his Blogger.com profile, and here are writings he posted on a discussion forum: Link (Arabic). The sentence comes three years after Mubarak announced he would abolish the practice of imprisonment for "press offenses."

The photo above was taken right after the court convicted Kareem in 2007, and he was loaded inside a truck to be taken into jail:

Seconds after he was loaded into the truck and the door closed, an Associated Press reporter heard the sound of a slap from inside the vehicle and a shriek of pain from Nabil.

His sentence ended Thursday November 4, but the Egyptian government did not release him today, or explain why. Al Jazeera has more. The online group for Kareem supporters, and a letter-writing campaign, are here.

• [Jeff Vader]

  and hey! what?, 2nd time. There was a comment here a moment ago to which I wanted to respond to. By the time I signed in it was gone. where’s *my* delete button?

• [mindysan33]

  I didn’t expect they’d let him out. Mubarak’s Egypt is pretty much like that. But he does whatever we say, so we just kinda let it go. Who cares if Egyptians are getting tortured and jailed for speaking their minds, as long as they enforce the Gaza blockade! Why do we keep supporting despots!?! It’s so infuriating!

  Maybe it got removed? What was the comment? Was it offensive?

  • [Jeff Vader]

    heres the thing: I can see how people get sent to prison in bogus ways while still maintaining the appearance of legality (i.e. “you go to prson for breaking a law that is unconstitutional in itself, but we dont care”), but just keeping them locked up after they served their court-appointed time – they’re not even trying to appear just, are they?

    re the disappearing comment: nah, IIRC it missed the above point. wasn’t offensive i think.

    • [mindysan33]

      That’s authoritarianism for ya. From what I hear, Egypt is pretty bad on this kind of thing. Just want to keep “bad” elements under wraps so the tourist don’t go away. I think they are afraid of the “Islamic radical” element taking hold. I don’t know if a new guy would help or hurt (as I’ve heard Mubarak is actually sick and could die soon).

      Hm. Wonder why it went away then.

• [Jeff Vader]

  Hey! What? No comments, no follow-up? whats the dealy-o? Seems like an interesting story to me…

• [ADavies]

  They’ve got a counter on their site (which you can easily add to your WordPress blog). 1,463 days in jail and counting. Poor guy.