The Power of the Internet, Egyptian-style

Yesterday a court in Cairo passed a landmark judgement, sending two policemen to jail for torturing a bus driver who had intervened in an altercation between his cousin and a policeman. What made this case special was that the evidence against the two men — who sodomised the young detainee with a stick and beat him with shoes, a whip and a gun — included footage of the assault taken by the policemen on their mobile phones (for the ‘amusement’ of their friends, presumably), which was then leaked and posted on the Internet by various bloggers. The images even appeared on YouTube. Torture in Egyptian police stations is a lamentably common occurrence, but the young busdriver was ecstatic that his decision to file a charge with the Prosecutor General was vindicated.

Blogging has really taken off in Egypt over the last couple of years, and is proving a useful tool for dissidents and human rights campaigners. But it too can lead to problems with the law. This Friday seees the first anniversary of the imprisonment in Alexandria of blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, commonly known as Kareem. He was found guilty of insulting both Islam and President Hosni Mubarak with his blogs and was sentenced to a total of four years in prison. Though his writing was often intemperate, he has become the focus of attention for Freedom of Expression campaigners not only in Egypt but worldwide. English PEN Writers in Prison Committee has been highlighting his case.

Link: www.freekareem.org