CAIRO: As the one year anniversary of the detainment of student blogger Kareem Amer approaches, activists of the online campaign Free Kareem Coalition are preparing for a day of worldwide protests in early November in support of the imprisoned cyber dissident.
The anniversary campaign entitled “One Year is Enough” has confirmed demonstrations outside the Egyptian embassies in New York City, Washington DC, Germany, the Netherlands, and in Romania on Nov. 9.
Activists aim, however, to organize rallies in at least 15 cities around the world, including London, Paris, and Stockholm.
“The demonstrations are intended to mark Kareem's one year in prison. He was detained on Nov. 6, 2006, but the actual sentence wasn’t handed out until three months later. We are planning to organize rallies then too,” Esra’a Al Shafei of the Free Kareem Coalition told Daily News Egypt.
It was in February this year that the 21-year-old former Al-Azhar student was sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak on his weblog. The case marks the first time Egypt subjects an internet blogger to a prison term and the sentencing has sparked heavy criticism of the Egyptian authorities from human rights groups as well as representatives of foreign governments.
During the first months of Amer’s imprisonment, the Free Kareem Coalition organized numerous rallies for Amer’s release in US and European capitals. The activist group now hopes that the one-year anniversary campaign will help create new momentum in the case.
“Our campaign is already receiving a lot of attention because people are thinking ‘wow, it's been a year’ since Kareem was sentenced. Most bloggers in the Arab world who get arrested are usually kept in detainment for a few months at the most. Kareem’s case is unique in this regard,” Al Shafei said.
Furthermore, Amer supposedly sent out a new letter from his prison cell a few days ago in which he reflects on his year in detainment and denounces the “enemies of freedom’ who put him in prison.
“I write, with the completion of a 'whole' year in prison approaching, with my cuffed freedom and restricted movements. The tough experience pushed me to realize the bitterness of injustice, that indescribable feeling which has no parallel, particularly if applied to a victim who is not guilty. I did nothing but merely practice my legitimate right to [free] speech, guaranteed by all civil and humanitarian rules despite the tyrants who do not approve of it,” the blogger stated, according to the Free Kareem Coalition.
Amer claims that he has not been allowed to use pens in prison until recently which forced him to previously dictate his letters.
He is now, however, allegedly allowed to "write and exchange mails" although his letters are "subject to censorship".
“Kareem can send and receive letters but not all packages reach him; especially books,” Al Shafei added.
