Rebecca Harrelson
11/11/10
12:12
"An Egyptian blogger who served his prison term is still under detention and being beaten by Egyptian security officers," two human rights groups said on Wednesday. Abdel Kareem Nabil, has been "subjected to repeated beatings" by an officer at the State Security Investigation office in Alexandria. Nabil was arrested in 2006 and later convicted by an Alexandria court on charges of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak.
Nabil had been released from Burji al-Arab Prison on Nov 6, held for 4 years. Then he was re-arrested by the by the security men in Alexandria without charges. In New York, the Committee to protect Journalists called on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release Nabil as well as for the investigation of the security officer who reportedly assaulted him Tuesday.
"There is no legal basis for Amer's detention beyond his court-imposed sentence," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "Its alarming that a law enforcement officer would feel he could attack someone with impunity. The assault shoudl be investigated, and charges should be brought against the officer."
Nabil was the first blogger in Egypt to be convicted explicitly for his work.
As I was reading this all I could think to myself was how there should be laws protecting journalist from being incarcerated by the words they put on paper. The Egyptian society is obviously much more sheltered from words against there culture. Do you think our society would have stories along this nature? Or is the Egyptian society too "up tight" in dealing with the literature the people of Egypt obtain in their daily lives. The fact that a man can be imprisoned by his opinions and thoughts, is ridiculous. Society should want to hear every point of view, whether they agreed or not.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gbxR7G8fKCSWxIphWWMJmbhY-FZg?docId=5093764
1 comment:
We have the freedom of speech in the U.S. but this is not a freedom enjoyed in many other countries. We cannot be imprisoned for our opinions here, but we can still be ostracized, demonized, and slandered thanks to expressing our opinions. It can hurt our careers, damage our families, and even give rise to mental illness and suicide thanks to verbal abuse and violence against somebody expressing their opinions. We may not be imprisoned physically, but we can definitely be punished by society.
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