An Egyptian blogger named Karim Amer is facing upto 10 years in prison for his blog writings. He has been charged of condemning Egypt’s al-Azhar pious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam through his blog. Charges that are made against him are ’spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country’s reputation,’ ‘incitement to hate Islam’ and ‘defaming the President of the Republic.’
Now, Amnesty International has demanded for instant and unconditional release of Karim Amer. Malcolm Smart, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program said that the imprisonment simply shows the strategy of authorities to warn other bloggers not to criticize the government.
This is indeed disturbing since many more Egyptian bloggers do write a lot about human rights maltreatments in Egypt. Because blogs can create a buzz, authorities have sorted out a way to keep a tab on this by putting such bloggers behind bars. I will be back with news of what the authorities have to say now. Will they release Karim Amer?
Via: thebloggingtimes
