14 DAY TRIAL // How would it feel if you heard that anything you wrote on your blog could send you to jail? Imagine how Abdel Karim Suleiman felt when he was charged with insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak in eight of his blog articles written since 2004. He was also the first blogger to stand trial in Egypt for Internet writings and was condemned to four years behind bars.
Back in February, the verdict was widely condemned by the human rights groups and bloggers alike. It was seen as a dangerous precedent that could limit online freedom in the most populated Arab country.
"I have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment", Suleiman's letter was quoted by the Paris based Reporters without Borders. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) released a statement in which it described how a prison guard and another prisoner beat him while an official turned a blind eye to the events happening right in front of him. And because he was subjected to these ancient means of interrogation he was then tended after by being sent to a disciplinary cell where he was put in handcuffs and leg shackles and "treated" with another beating.
The unfortunate former law student was given this "special care" because of an act of corruption that he had uncovered in jail, according to ANHRI but further details were not disclosed. No official was able to comment on the Egyptian government's behalf, but the latter allegedly opposes torture and prosecutes abusers if it is presented with evidence of wrongdoing.
The articles were never forsworn by Suleiman who furthermore admitted to being secular-minded. He said, though, that they only represent his point of view. One of the articles likened Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.