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Egyptian blogger alleges prison beating

• Richard Colebourn
• 3 Dec 07, 10:23 AM

BEIRUT - I was passed a pretty miserable letter this week from a young Egyptian man called Abdel Kareem Suleiman. He鈥檚 currently serving time in a prison in the northern city of Alexandria.

His letter alleges abuse by the prison鈥檚 guards. 鈥淚 have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,鈥� he writes.

For anyone who knows anything about Egypt, that's not very surprising, except for this: Abdel Kareem is 23 and behind bars for blogging.

In the first sentence of its kind, in for four years. Three years of his term are for 鈥渋nciting hatred of Islam鈥� and another is for insulting the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak. criticised Egypt鈥檚 government and leading religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law.

Now he says that he鈥檚 being beaten, left handcuffed and in leg shackles and kept in an isolation cell, where he was given insufficient food and water. The Egyptian authorities won鈥檛 comment on his allegations.

A friend of mine, another Egyptian blogger called , tells me that sometimes she鈥檚 afraid of suffering a similar fate. 鈥淏ut most of us believe that being afraid shouldn鈥檛 stop us from doing more - unveiling all the violations we see and increasing the awareness of our people,鈥� she says. 鈥淏logging in Egypt is still going on and we have more bloggers 鈥� it is increasing.鈥�

Egypt鈥檚 young bloggers present a new challenge to the country鈥檚 powerful political and religious elite. They鈥檙e increasingly prepared to investigate stories too hot for Egypt鈥檚 off-line media.

Earlier this month two Egyptian policemen were jailed for torturing and sexually abusing a bus driver they were holding in custody. They filmed the assault of the 22 year old man on their mobile phone. Much to the embarrassment of the Egyptian police, the footage then appeared on a blog. The pictures shocked many Egyptians and the government was forced to respond.

But despite this victory, Egyptian bloggers like Shahinaz worry that the government may still clamp down further. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if there will be another case like Abdel Kareem鈥檚, but there may well be,鈥� she tells me. 鈥淭he regime is getting more aggressive regarding freedom of speech.鈥� The group agrees, placing Egypt on its list of 鈥�.

The Guardian鈥檚 investigative writer David Leigh recently challenged the paper鈥檚 media columnist, , over the impact blogging will have on traditional media. (AKA blogging and user-supplied photos and video) will mean old-fashioned newspapers and broadcasters will end up primarily 鈥榩rocessing鈥� the work of many individuals, rather than an elite group of professional journalists. Leigh .

As Abdel Kareem and Shahinaz survey the media landscape of Egypt, the Guardian鈥檚 debate would amuse them.