Egypt: Christian blogger denied release, again
Dec 17th, 2009 | By Bikya Masr Staff | Category: Egypt, Media, News
CAIRO: An Egyptian-Christian blogger has been denied release by Egypt’s ministry of interior, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reported on Wednesday. The move comes after Egyptian courts have called for his release on a previous three occasions, but the ministry continues to issue arrest warrants that keep Hani Nazeer Aziz in jail.
Aziz blogs on Karz al-Hob, which, according to ANHRI, was removed from the Internet by Egyptian authorities following a crackdown of bloggers in October 2008.
ANHRI says Aziz was arrested under the pretext of the emergency law, “without any charge or crime since October 2008″ and “has been issued a fourth release decision by State Security Court, after lawyers of ANHRI’s freedom of expression legal aid unit submitted a memorandum to the court detailing how security forces kidnapped Hani’s brothers as hostage until he would turn himself in.”
The Cairo-based rights group says that the blogger has committed no crime and should be released. They added that a church leader had helped security “to get hold of Hani in October 2008,” when the blogger was arrested and taken to the infamous Borg al-Arab prison.
According to ANHRI, the Christian blogger has been subjected to a series of violations since he was detained over one year ago. ANHRI, in a press statement listed the abuses against Aziz: “abduction of his brothers; threatening to arrest his sisters; Church cleric cooperating with security against him; detaining him as a criminal rather than a political prisoner; pressuring him to convert to Islam to be released; forcing him to tell the password of his blog, which was then erased by state security; preventing ANHRI lawyers from visiting him; and security declining on the implementation of four judicial decisions to release him.”
ANHRI condemned the actions of the government, saying, “the Egyptian interior minister, being responsible for the state security department, ought to feel proud that his men are so shielded off from accountability and punishment, and that judiciary independence has become a meaningless slogan that some officials use to deceive the public opinion in Egypt.”
It added that these types of cases, similar in nature to Aziz’s and “other prisoners of conscience as well as victims of impunity in Egypt, will be the living proof of the lies of the Egyptian government in Geneva during the presentation of Egypt’s report on human rights conditions in Egypt during the last four years.”
BM
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I don’t understand why you described the detained blogger as ‘Egyptian-Christian’. Many Muslim bloggers were arrested and none was said in the news to be ‘Egyptian-Muslim’. Does being a Christian make a difference؟‎ Equality in persecution is guaranteed in Egypt for both Muslims and Christians!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bikya Masr, Mideast Media. Mideast Media said: Egyptian blogger detained since October 2008 denied release for fourth time: http://is.gd/5qW6i (via @BikyaMasr) [...]
Yeah piss off, we both know there are double standards in Egypt when it comes to Muslims and Copts.
Dictatorial regimes do not ask you about your religion Mr David! They ask you whether you are with or against them.
Comment # 1 already said what was on my mind. What was the relevance of describing him as Christian? Many, many Muslim bloggers and MB members were arrested and detained for indefinite periods without charge and their treatment was no better than Hani.
In the previous story about detention and torture that BM got from Marei’s blog, inhumane abuses took place and no one mentioned the family’s religion.
There is no point in describing him as a Christian, because it is beside the point here.
David. There are no double standards in detention and torture and everyone knows that well. But you probably know that anyway
In support of comment # 1, 4 and 5 I can only say that it is THE trend in all the media. Nobody (d)cares to mention the religion of a criminal – be it rapist, murderer, burgler – or a political prisoner or a terrorist.
ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY when the perpetrator is also a Muslim then we read it time and again in all the news. It becomes at times even more important than the crime he committed.
This tells us what exactly?? One only needs to connect the dots.
As we all have said umpteen times: ALL Egyptian people are oppressed and victimized by the dictatorial regime – whether they are Muslims, Copts, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Atheist you name them. They ALL suffer the same fait. Like it or not.
Now why there are all these attempts to paint so desperately a different picture is beyond me. Those living in this beautiful country know the ugly truth.
Those living outside are unfortunately subjected to the continuous brainwashing of this ongoing “sectarian struggle” which is instigated and directed by the regime for its own benefit. We have read about it time and again too.
So … having said all this … why don’t you, Bikya Masr, try to make a difference? Instead of blowing into the same horn state the facts of the ground! I wish you’d have the courage to do so.
[...] Masr reports that the ministry of interior has for a third time ignored a court’s order to release the Egyptian-Christian blogger Hani Nazeer Aziz. They also report that the [...]
“I don’t understand why you described the detained blogger as ‘Egyptian-Christian’.”
Maybe because he was pressured to convert to Islam while in jail? How many Egyptian-Muslim bloggers are pressured to convert to other religions while in prison?
It is an injustice that anyone should be held a prisoner without sufficient evidence of criminal activity. Religion should be a fundamental freedom of choice. Christianity is represenitive of compassion and mercy. Jesus Christ came to save the world not condemn it. We should keep Hani Nazeer Aziz and his family in our prayers.