According to mediaforfreedom, and IFEX (via ANHRI), several Egyptian bloggers were arrested today.

mediaforfreedom says that all five were arrested.

The Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information reported that three Egyptian bloggers were arrested by the government on the same day Egyptian blogger Nora Younis received the Activist Award offered by the U.S.-based human rights group, Human Rights First.

The organization reported that Hani Nazeer Aziz, a Christian, Mohammed Khairi and Mohammed Adil, Bilal Alaa, and Husam Yahya were arrested after they were harassed and their houses were attacked by the Egyptian security authorities. It is reported that the police used different means to arrest the bloggers, such as arresting their family members in order to make them turn themselves in to the police.

“It’s not a coincidence at all that the security forces start attacking Egyptian bloggers at the same time a colleague of theirs, a human rights activist, receive an important award in the United States,” said Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. “The Egyptian government has not forgiven the bloggers in their distinguished and continuous role in revealing the severe violations of the law and he human rights.”

IFEX says only two, Aziz and Khairi, were arrested, while the other three escaped seizure.

The security apparatus arrested two of Hani Nazeer Aziz’s brothers on the first of October and used them as hostages to force his surrender. On 3 October, he was informed that security officers were also going to arrest his sisters to put more pressure on him to give himself up. He turned himself in on the same day. Since then, he has not been seen, and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) learned only on 22 October that he had been detained under emergency law, which is the usual way in which the ministry of the interior deals with innocent people whom they want to detain without bringing charges against them,

Mohamed Khairi, the man who set up the Garshkal blog and a student in the faculty of engineering at Cairo University, was arrested in a surprise dawn raid on his home on 22 October, when his computer and paperwork were seized.

The other three bloggers mentioned above, Mohamed Adil, Bilal Alaa and Husam Yahia, all had their homes raided by the security forces. All three managed to avoid arrest, either by escaping or by being forewarned of the arrival of the “dawn visitors” (policemen from the state security department).

Can anyone in Egypt confirm which version is accurate?