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Victim in Egyptian Jail… Letters Will Help
From the FreeKareem.org website:
You can write to the Egyptian Ambassador to help his case. Please be polite and respectful.
More information available at www.FreeKareem.org. I wrote about the case in 2007 here and here.
Freedom for Yang Zili
Congratulations to Yang Zili, a Chinese advocate for political pluralism and human rights who has been set free after serving eight years in prison.
As I noted in the Fall 2007 edition of Cato’s Letter, Yang was an admirer of the libertarian thinker F. A. Hayek and described himself as a political liberal. A computer engineer by trade, Yang quickly recognized the power of the internet to spread ideas, founding a website, the “Garden of Ideas” (www.lib.126.com), where he forcefully condemned communism and argued for democratic reforms. “I am a liberal,” he wrote, “and what I care about are human rights, freedom and democracy.” Yang also participated in a discussion group called the New Youth Society, where he discussed the potential for political reform in China with young people who were similarly passionate. In 2001, Yang Zili and three of his colleagues were jailed for conspiring to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party.
As the Washington Post reported in 2004, the small group met for only a few months, and during that time one of its members was reporting to the Ministry of State Security. Indeed, the Post reported:
What happened to the New Youth Study Group offers a glimpse into the methods the party uses to maintain its monopoly on power and the difficult moral choices faced by those caught in its grip. The fate of the study group also illustrates the thoroughness with which the party applies one of its most basic rules of survival: Consider any independent organization a potential threat and crush it.
The eight members of the New Youth Study Group never agreed on a political platform and had no real source of funds. They never set up branches in other cities or recruited any other members. They never even managed to hold another meeting with full attendance; someone was always too busy.
And yet they attracted the attention of China’s two main security ministries. Reports about their activities reached officials at the highest levels of the party, including Luo Gan, the Politburo member responsible for internal security. Even the president then, Jiang Zemin, referred to the investigation as one of the most important in the nation, according to people who have seen an internal memo summarizing the comments of senior officials about the case.
Such is life in a police state.
Yang Zili spent eight years in prison for being brave enough to speak out against an authoritarian regime, which is 8 years too many in my book. Still, we can take comfort that he got out, and that his colleagues are slated to be released from prison next year.
Unfortunately, many young internet activists brave enough to stand up for freedom still languish in jail.
Filed under: Foreign Policy and National Security; Law and Civil Liberties
Freedom for Kareem November 9
November 9 will mark 1 year in jail for an innocent young man, sentenced to four years in prison for expressing his opinions on his blog.
Raja Kamal of the University of Chicago and I told the story in “Freedom for an Egyptian Blogger and Freethinker” last February in the Washington Post. You can get more details, including how you can help take part in a dignified protest for human rights, write letters to Egyptian officials, and more, at www.freekareem.org.
A Jailed Blogger and What You Can Do
I’ve got a detailed piece on National Review Online on the case of Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for the crime of … blogging.
Filed under: General; Law and Civil Liberties; Telecom, Internet & Information Policy
Free Kareem Rallies February 15
Friends of freedom will be at dignified rallies in cities around the world on behalf of Abdelkareem, who is awaiting sentencing in Egypt for expressing his opinions on his blog. Rallies will be held in New York, London, Ottawa, Chicago, Bucharest, Washington, Rome, and Paris, and we are hoping for other cities.
In Washington, friends of freedom will gather at noon on February 15 at the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau: 1303 New Hampshire Ave, NW; Washington, DC, near Dupont Circle.
Visit http://www.freekareem.org/ for more details. If you can spare an hour on February 15, please join those who are standing for freedom of speech….and for the freedom of a young man who — agree with him or not — merely spoke his mind.
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If You’re in New York and Can Spare a Little Time, You Could Spare a Life
Former Cato Institute interns and New York residents Constantino Diaz-Duran and Chris Kilmer are organizing an effort on behalf of an Egyptian student they’ve never met who faces a terrible penalty for writing his opinions on his personal blog. The event will take place Wednesday, January 31 starting at 3:30 pm at the Egyptian Consulate in New York at 1110 2nd Avenue, between E. 58th and E. 59th.
Kareem is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday. A respectful message to the Egyptian government — whether in front of the Consulate or by email, fax, or phone — encouraging them to do the right thing and let him go could save a young man’s life.
Please Help This Young Man
This case is extremely important. The fates of a young man and of freedom of speech are at stake. Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman will be sentenced on Thursday for alleged crimes in Egypt, including insulting the president. Please read about his case at http://www.freekareem.org/.
Please send a respectful letter by fax or email to the Egyptian Embassy requesting that the Egyptian government correct the error of arresting him and allow him his freedom.
Filed under: General; International Economics and Development; Law and Civil Liberties
Jailed for a Blog
Please Help This Young Man
Yesterday’s International Herald Tribune ran this article by my admired friends Dalia Ziada and Jesse Sage:
CAIRO: In a cramped jail cell in Alexandria, Egypt, sits a soft-spoken 22- year-old student. Kareem Amer was sent to prison for over a month for allegedly “defaming the president of Egypt” and “highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt.” Where did Amer commit these supposed felonies? On his weblog.
If the Alexandria prosecutors’ standards of censorship were applied in the United States or Europe, thousands upon thousands of bloggers would be behind bars. The basic right of individual free expression is sadly not respected in today’s Egypt. Yet the authorities’ decision to jail an obscure student for his writing reveals a larger struggle for free speech playing out between dissident bloggers and state prosecutors across the Middle East.
That gives the basics of the case. The entire article is available here.
Thousands have already signed the online petition (but more are needed for it to be effective). Others are writing respectful letters (the only kind that work) to the Egyptian authorities. Resources, including banner ads for blogs and websites, information, press coverage, and more, are available at www.FreeKareem.org.
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