Committee to Protect Egyptian Bloggers

Blogger "Abd El Monem Mohmoud" arrested

cpeg — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:10:02 +0200

Today, Egyptian police force had break in Abd Al Monem Mahmoud house. Abd El Monem is an Egyptian Muslim Brother journalist and blogger, running the blog “Ana Ikhwan” (aka I'm Ikhwan). He wasn't in home at the breaking in time, so he informed some friends and give himself to the police.

Alaa said “I believe his arrest is mainly an attempt to silence the campaign agaist sending ikhwan leadership to military tribunal, Monem was coordinating the campaign which used blogs as it’s main tool ”

Release Abdelkareem Soliman

ikhnaton2 — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 21:10:36 +0200

On November 6, 2006, Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman had been arrested for posting his Anti-Islamic thoughts on his BLOG .

A campaign had been initiated to free AbdelKareem as a way for fighting for further rights to expression freedom in Egypt.

Egyptian blogger Fired from his Job for his political activities

FreeSoul — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 17:02:58 +0300

Egyptian pro-democracy blogger Ahmad el Droubi who has been detained and released lately by Egyptian authorities for participating in the demonstrations supporting Egyptian judges during last month was fired from his job and was told after 2 days of his release on 29th of May that his activities were not looked upon highly by the the Cairo office of the company he works for WorlyParsons Komex.

El Droubi said that he was dismissed by his Egyptian boss.

He sent a message of complaint to the company senior management in London.

Here some exerpts of the message:

(I have been an employee of WorlyParsons Komex since January of this year. I have served as a field ecologist with the Cairo office. On April 24, I was detained by the Egyptian State Security police, and held for 33 days without appearing before a judge, and obviously without being convicted of any crime. I was arrested during a peaceful solidarity sit- in with Egyptian Judges outside the Judge’s Club in downtown Cairo ... This sit-in was organized by an Egyptian civil rights movement, known as Kefaya (Arabic for Enough). Kefaya is a movement that campaigns for democracy in Egypt, focusing on issues ranging from corruption, freedom of expression, torture, and free elections.

During the period of my detention I received two statements from the WorlyParsons Komex Cairo office: the first of these was delivered through my lawyer stating that if I was released before the end of May my job would be waiting for me.
The second statement came to me as a surprise; this statement was made by Mr. Mohamed Abdel Gawad, manager of the Cairo office on two separate occasions: to my lawyer and to my parents. They were told that the company requested my resignation–rather than dismissing me, as that would be more favorable on my record (and as it turns out according to my lawyer, it was to remove all liability from the company). …a resignation (was) awaiting my signature.
Two days after my release I returned to the office on May 29. I was told that my political activities were not looked upon highly by the office, and that the fact that I had not attended a month of work–despite the fact that official government documents explaining my detention were delivered to the office on two separate occasions by my lawyer.
Two days later I received an envelope containing four warnings concerning my absence in addition to a document containing a preliminary termination of employment.

I have been considering and have been advised to pursue legal action against the company.)

A campaign to express solidarity with elDroubi has been initiated by sending a message to the company protesting the dismisal of el-Droubi.

So far the company hasn't respond to Ahmad's complaint.

First Seven Egyptian Detained Bloggers

ikhnaton2 — Tue, 30 May 2006 03:09:15 +0300

Seven bloggers were among 66 Egyptian citizens that were arrested and detained during this month by the Egyptian State Security during their peaceful protest in support of two senior judges, Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi on the background of the judiciary independence issue.

Detention started on 25 April, 2006 in a peaceful demonstration where the first bloggers (Ahmed El Droubi, Malek Mostafa and Mohamed Adel) had been kidnapped by State Security solders wearing civilian closes. The same scenario had been repeated once again on 7 May, 2006 when Mohamed Sharkawy, Karim El Shaer, Alaa Ahmed Seif El Islam and Asmaa Ali had been arressted.

As this post had published, five bloggers had been released:
Ahmed El Droubi
Malek Mostafa
Mohamed Adel
Mohamed Sharkawy
Karim El Shaer

The last two bloggers (Mohamed Sharkawy and Karim El Shaer) had been arrested again on 25 May, 2006 demonstration and being tortured by the State Security.

CPEG's Mission

cpeg — Tue, 23 May 2006 16:46:35 +0300

The Committee to Protect Egyptian Bloggers is looking forward to be a new clearinghouse for information on Egyptian bloggers who are punished, threatened or otherwise disadvantaged for what they post on their blogs.