Update 1: I'll be on BBC Radio "World Have Your Say" tonight to talk about Alaa'a arrest.
Update 2: Kevin from BBC's "World Have Your Say" writes in BBC blogs:
I contacted the Egyptian Embassy here in London to give them a chance to respond. I called around 4 pm, and their press secretary had already gone home for the day. They told me ring the ambassador's office, and he was not available to join the programme or to make a statement.
What are you afraid of Mr. Ambassador? Facing the truth? Shame!!!
Original post:
Today, the Egyptian blogsphere is loaded with anger and appeals for urgent actions. All what you need to know to feel the pulse is watching the Egyptian Blogs Aggregator (maintained by Alaa). The story of his arrest is in the headlines across the blogsphere as well as some news websites beyond the Egyptian borders.
Following is a summery and updates from around the blogsphere:
Alaa's wife, Manal reports that Alaa and the other arrested activist are now detained for 15 days:
Alaa and the rest of the group that was kidnapped yesterday, will be detained for 15 days. They didnt go directly to the prison as we thought, but spent the night at the Khalifa's police station and are supposed to be transferred to the prisons now. The 3 women will go to El Qanater prison, as Tora prison where the rest of the 40 detainees are held has no section for women, and the men are supposed to join the rest and go to Tora prison, but some think that they will also taken to El Qanater prison (which has sections for both men and women).
Sandmonkey also confirms the 15 days detention "pending investigation", which could be renewed indefinitely. What he is afraid of is what could follow inside the infamous prison:
Him and the men were sent to the infamous Torah Prison and the girls to the Qanatir prison for the duration. This makes them hardly safe, because stuff that goes on in egyptian prisons on the hands of the jailors: beatings, sexual assaults, torture of all kinds. This is why we aim to get them out of there as soon as possible, so that even if they do end up serving the entire 15 days- which they won't have to if the government gets pressured- they ndon;t end up serving an extra day after that. No one deserves this happening to them, especially for exercising their right to free speech.
However, there seems to be another15 day’s detention, but a renewal 15 days detention for the first arrested group. Tomanbay says:
Arrest period was extended for the protestors detained on April 24th, for 15 more days. Mind you, this is an ad-hoc arrest, no subpoena, or court orders issued. This brings the period they're spending in prison, without facing charges, to 30 days.
Salma confirms that this 15 days-extension for the first arrested group. However the other alarming part is the condition of the detainees:
Faisal also confirms the reports of mistreatment.
Nermeena describe what is happening as a "crisis. She says:
Talk about freedom & Democracy Till now…..48 detained, among them 6 bloggers, and 3 ladies!!
In his last night post, The Skeptic fears are coming true:
When I first met Alaa in the summer of 2005, I told him I was worried the government would crack down on the Kifaya protesters after the elections, when the world’s attention was elsewhere. I asked him if he was worried about what would happen if that came to pass: Many of the protesters were young, they had never been in jail, they didn’t know what could happen to them. He said he believed that it was too late for the government to put an end to the protests, that once people had tasted a bit of freedom, the regime couldn’t roll it back.
“The government would pay a heavy price if it clamps down on us,” Alaa’s father told the BBC’s Heba Saleh last year. The coming days and weeks will see both those predictions tested.
Yasmina, as many other bloggers are calling for help:
GO TO SANDMONKEY’S SITE AND HELP ALAA AND OTHERS THAT WERE ARESSTED . We need to show our support no matter whare you are. I sent two emails and made my brother send one. Just help cause people don't really know what kind of abuse our great Egyptian cops put people through.
You can find more templates here.
Freedom for Egyptians blog is reporting that Human Rights Watch Responds to Egypt's Regime Mass Detentions:
Human Rights Watch has said the Egyptian government should immediately release scores of peaceful protesters arrested over the past 10 days solely for exercising their right to free expression and assembly.
This post was first published on Global Voices.
{ 4 } Comments
Thank you for continuing to post about this, and keep readers updated. This is crucial and appreciated. So just wanted to say THANKS for the effort!
Keep it up Haitham — you're doing great work here.
Thank you Hal and TigerHawk. Appreciate your posts and links.
I hope more people spread the word and take action. The more the better.
Thanks a lot for the updates…
I put a link "release Alaa" in my blog, i hope this will help a bit :(
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Nakba-Catastrophe Oral History interviews (high speed Internet access is needed, otherwise, the audio or MP3 version is the only option for low speed Internet). Here is a complete listing of over 180 interviews (containing over 600 hours of recording) that have been
And it's also fascinating to note that, Egypt were recently the center of a Google Bombing campaign initiated by the Eqyptian blogosphere and supported by many editors and authors at Global Voices Online in a move to free a detained Egyptian Blogger — Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, Alaa was released from prison late last night after being held for 46 days by Egyptian Authorities for taking part in a protest.
as a tangible force for justice. So go ahead, start bombing." … [internationaldemoblog] Tag it: Add the Technorati tag googlebombingforalaa to your post. Digg it: The ?Google-bomb for Alaa? is on Digg. Go Digg it! More information and updates: sabbah.biz A Wiki list of all the blog posts that have google-bombed for Alaa. Technorati Tag: googlebombingforalaa [IMG del.icio.us]activism egypt googlebombingforalaa
Read the AP story, a statement of condemnation from APC.org, visit Alaa's blog (Manal and Alaa's bit bucket), their Weblog Award, and a very interesting attempt to "Google-bomb" for Alaa. Last Updated ( Monday, 19 June 2006 ) The Kids are Alright Written by Administrator Sunday, 18 June 2006
Please digg this post. Let us campaign for Egypt And Alaa. As a contribution for the Google Bombina for Alaa, The Egyptian blogger, Activist and One of the Egyptian FOSS leaders.
another study conducted by vice-manager of educational affairs at the Saudi ministry of education, concluded that CHAT ROOMS and FORBIDDEN SITES on the Internet were the main cause for the increase in the rate of divorce in the kingdom (no wonder Google trend shows Saudi in the top list of search for sex). Yet another report by the ministry of planning and national economy claimed that 65 per cent of marriages arranged by matchmakers failed, which is another problem, as we all know that it is nearly impossible for males females to even see each other
And it?s also fascinating to note that, Egypt were recently the center of a Google Bombing campaign initiated by the Eqyptian blogosphere and supported by many editors and authors at Global Voices Online in a move to free a detained Egyptian Blogger ? Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, Alaa was released from prison late last night after being held for 46 days by Egyptian Authorities for taking part in a protest.
ttp://datamining.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/livejournal.png Via : http://datamining.typepad.com/ Putting the 'map' back in Topic Maps : http://shelter.nu/art-007.html The shrinking map of Palestine : http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2006/05/10/the-shrinking-map-of-palestine/ (in London Times, 5 May 2006, 'Truth in Mapping') Mapping the Web Infome : http://128.111.69.4/~jevbratt/lifelike/ software enables the creation of web crawlers and the creation of visualizations/mappings of the collected data.
Posted on 07.12.06 by Rabbi Yonah @ 11:23 pm [IMG allah_and_manal.png]Even though Egypt just arrested up to 50 bloggers, they continue to be a thorn in side of the autocratic regimes. The SF Chronicle just published a facinating article about the voice of blogger decent in the Arab world. A Heretic?
[...] 138. Alaa detained [...]
Release Alaa!
I am going to add this banner to this blog's campaigns. You can see what has happened to him in Sabbah's blog or Sandmonkey. Some Egyptian bloggers have created Free Alaa: the Blog. This last blog has a good post (from Sanmonkey) on whole affair: …
[...] man news popular search social web2.0 webappswww.wikio.com Alaa detained for 15 days "pending investigat [...]