We wrote about the arrest of Mohamed Adel and Dia’El Din Gad not so long ago, news coming is that while under state custody they were tortured.¬† Adel who was later realeased is quoted on Al-Dostor newspaper thus;

torture included whipping and suspension and electric shocks, Mohamed Adel said that each time there were doctors who came to treat the torture trace on his body to hide it.

Gad is still in custody but reports reaching us is that he is receiving treatment in prison and was able to meet his family and lawyer, this is after clamour for his release increased.

This actions by the Egyptian government are part of censorship, filtering and harrasment plot on bloggers and cyber-dissidents and all those who dare voice their criticism of the government’s rule, something which we at CPB are totally against.

Both Adel and Gad are eminent members of the Egyptian blogosphere and we hope that the rest of the country’s bloggers will not be cowed into silence.

Egyptian bloggers have launched a campaign titled ‘Operation General Dead’ to step up efforts to have their fellow blogger Mohamed Adel released.¬† We wrote about Mohamed here back in November last year when he was arrested by Egypt’s special forces.

Mohamed was arrested in part for posting pictures of himself with a Kalashnikov during a trip to Gaza organized by ‘Popular Committee against the Gaza Siege’

To press for his release the bloggers have launched a satirical campaign where they are clad in amry uniform and brandishing fake weapons so as to raise awareness for Adel’s case.¬† So realistic has the campaign been that Facebook has censored it.

One of the bloggers, Wael Abbas, is quoted in Observer France thus:

We wanted to draw the attention of the media and the public to Mohammed Adel’s case and to make a mockery of the accusations put forward by the secret services. Some of our photos have been erased by Facebook because they were thought to go against the site’s chart, as explained in the warning I received. Two photos of a friend carrying a fake gun were thus erased because they allegedly incited violence. This is absurd – it’s simply a toy! Facebook apparently received a host of comments from Web users who wanted the pictures censored. In my view, Egyptian security services must’ve been behind the alerts. They’d already used this method in the past to get rid of videos I posted on YouTube.”

Mohamed, also nicknamed ‘Dead’, hence the name of the campaign was indicted because of the photos that appeared on his blog, has been know for his criticism of Hosni Mubarak’s regime and the oppression prevalent in Egypt.

It could be you. But it’s not. It’s Egypt’s Kareem. Don’t forget him. It’s what Egypt’s leadership would like you to do.

From Free Kareem:

2 years ago.. Kareem was officially sentenced to 4 years in prison, 2 of which he has already served. Throughout this time Kareem has been beaten, humiliated and harassed. But he remains strong, despite feeling frustrated and lonely. He has written several letters which we have published here, expressing his current state and also his appreciation of everyone around the world who continues to fight for his cause.

A recent article in Menassat has also featured news from his letters:

BEIRUT, February 19, 2009 (MENASSAT)- “Do you think that life outside prison will be better or do you think it will be more hell than here?” imprisoned blogger Kareem Amer asked “Wahda Masrya” in a letter a few days ago.

Wahda Masrya, moderator of the blog “An Egyptian girl” and a close friend of Amer, told MENASSAT that the dissident blogger currently feels “very lonely” and that he is in need of “moral support.”

The blogger has been in prison since 2006, and it appears to have taken a hard toll on him.

“Prison has become a part of my imagination. I don’t remember what life was like before my imprisonment and what people look like outside,” Amer wrote in his letter.

Wahda Masrya said Amer’s atheist views make it especially hard for him and that he fears for his safety after his release from Alexandria’s Borg Al-Arab prison.

“In his letter, I see that he is frustrated. He wrote that he is not sure if being out will be safer for him. He needs to be reassured that he will be safe, as he is considered an atheist.” Wahdamasryra told MENASSAT.

Read the rest of the article here.

To find out how you can help, please visit this page, or obtain the prison address from this page and help give Kareem moral support by sending him a letter encouraging his strength.

UPDATE:

The Middle East Times reports that Rizk has been released, we hope that Gad will also be released soonest.

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GlobalVoices tells us that bloggers have become the new target of Egpytian authorities, this is proving to be ominously true, what with the arrests of Philip Rizk and Diaa Eddin Gad.

Rizk was arrested after his involvement in the organizing a protest march against the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, Rizk whose blog criticizes the Israeli military incursion, was arrested after the march and is still in police custody.

Eddin Gad, who blogs at An Angry Voice, was also arrested from his home though the police did not reveal any reasons for his arrest.

The Egyptian blogosphere has started a campaign to get Rizk released and CPB supports them fully.

There have been so many, and the transliteration of their names different enough in various sources, that we’re always wary about covering the same arrest twice, though I don’t think this is the case, though the photo on his blog seems awfully familir

RSF reported that Reda Abderrahman Ali was also arrested. 

Around 20 police officers turned up at 2am on 27 October 2008 at the home of 32-year-old Reda Abderrahman Ali, in the village of Abu Hariz, in the north-east of the country.

The blogger’s sister told Reporters Without Borders that the security forces searched his room and seized his computer. In the days following his arrest, the family sent letters to the interior ministry as well as to President Hosni Mubarak, but these letters have so far gone unanswered. One month after his arrest, his family do not know what he is to be charged with or where he is being held.

Abderrahman Ali has been blogging for nearly two years. During this time he has had countless problems with his employer in connection with his writing. His sister said he had been threatened with legal proceedings by al-Azhar for his articles on the Koranists movement of which he is a member and who believe that the practice of Islam should not be based on any text other than the Koran.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information reported that Egyptian blogger Mohamed Adel was been taken by that country’s security forces on November 20th. Adel’s blog is Meit.

Adel’s house was surrounded by fourty soldiers, special police forces and three police vans who broke into his home, made a search of his house and confiscated books and CDs. The twenty year old blogger was outside his house during the police campaign. It seems that police had been keeping a track on his phone, and he was kidnapped while he was on his way to meet his friend who is a journalist.

In a confusingly edited story, Reuters called Adel a “pro-Hamas” blogger, while also possibly assigning him membership in the banned Muslim Brotherhood. (Can anyone confirm any of this?)

Adel’s blog featured a picture of the founder of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, a burning American flag, and pictures of Hamas fighters.

Egypt says the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most powerful opposition, is a banned group and police regularly arrest its members.

ANHRI said Adel is the second blogger to be arrested during the latest “state of emergency.” Musaad Abu Fagr has also been taken.

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.”

Read the rest of this entry…