Matt Jones's List: Threatened Voices

• For the first time in Egypt, a blogger is to be sent to a military court because of his writing online. Ahmad Mostafa (student) wrote on his blog Maza Asabak ya Watan (What Weent Wrong With You oh My country?!) about a student from the War School, who was expelled and his dad asked to sign a statement saying: “my son was not able to adapt to the military life“.
   

  According to Mostafa's blog post, which only quoted members of the expelled student's family, a rich man who wanted to have his son join the school but couldn't find a place for him, maneuvered for this place and then succeeded to replace his son with the expelled Mostafa.

   

  The young blogger wrote about the incident a year ago on under the title: ‘The School War's Scandel“. But a month ago he received an alert from the security regarding that post, right before a visit paid by the president Hosni Mubarak's to Kafr El-Sheikh governorate, where Mostafa lives and studies. On 25th February he was arrested, while was in his way to the university.

   

  The Association of Freedom of Thinking and Expression condemned the arrest and listed the accusation of Mostafa, which brought him to a military court:

   

  He was transferred to the military attorney who decided to keep him in custody for 4 days in order to resume the investigation, and to send him to the military court in Cairo on February 28th, 2010, as he is accused of:

   

   
  1. defaming the Egyptian armed forces.
   
  2. shaking the trust of people on the armed forces.
   
  3. publishing false news.
   

   

   

  The Egyptian blogosphere was abuzz by the news, especially that the young blogger didn't write a word about “the Egyptian armed forces“, Zeinobia blogged:

   

  I respect the army very much and I think that this incident is very dangerous especially that from I understand from Mohamed Adel's post about the matter the military intelligence is involved in the matter. From a legal point of view Mustafa should not be prosecuted in front of a military court. From a logic point of view he should not be prosecuted at all because he did not breach any military secrets 

   

  Reading again his blog post, the Egyptian blogger Cocy found a comment, published on January 26th by a reader called ‘Tamer', threatening Mostafa for the aforementioned post.

   

  Twitter was the news exchange tool for the arrested blogger, Mohamed Adel tweeted the news, and has been updating the tweeps on him.

• On February 5 an unidentified man was arrested for comments he posted to a webboard. His house was searched, his computer confiscated as evidence, his family frightened, and friends panicked. These are ordinary people who express opinions that the authorities consider dangerous, and the mainstream media never allows. The Internet is their only outlet.

   

  The police released this man on February 6, told him to stop making comments on webboard, and they will let the case go away quietly. They also expect no protest or any political attention to his brief detention.
• How many other cases there are there like this one? It is a perfect method of intimidation and creating fear without having to do the paper work to the end, not having to bother the court, and without public attention. Many Thais now say they will withdraw from the internet exchanges, at least for a long while.

• The government announced last month (Jan 2010) that they would set up a committee to oversee the cases to prevent the abuses of the law. During the past year, the convictions in three cases were severe (18, 10 and 7 years of prison). One of the prisoners has a serious medical problem requiring surgery, but her request to see a specialist was denied by the prison authority and by the court on the ground that her crime (LM) is serious.

   

  A dozen more people were arrested, charged for lèse majesté, either by the lèse majesté law or under the Computer Crimes Act 2007 which is a lèse majesté law in disguise. The CCA has not been used against pornography or identity theft but solely for lèse majesté. Four recent arrests were for translating news from Bloomberg about the monarch’s health, for spreading so-called “inauspicious rumours” after the downturn in the Thai stock market.

   

  An unconfirmed source reports there are about 200 lèse majesté cases in court at the moment. We can imagine how widespread the intimidation and fear is.
• eanwhile Thai authorities intensify their propaganda to justify the lèse majesté. Their repeated arguments are the following: 1) The monarchy in Thailand is so unique and special that no other country and their laws can be useful to compare. Thaland's lèse majesté laws and their application are therefore unique. 2) The Thai monarch cannot protect the institution itself. He cannot file a suit against anybody, therefore the state has to defend the monarchy.

• 1) The Thai human right groups are dominated by the seniors who supported and assisted the royalist coup in 2006. They remain absolutely silent on lèse majesté issue.

   

  2) The international human rights bodies are very bureaucratic. They take info and recommendations from their local representatives then say and do (nothing) likewise. To their credits, after years of silence and refusal to take any action, in December 2009 Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch finally issued statements regarding the human rights situation in Thailand. The lèse majesté issue was included in their reviews. We hope to see an explanation for this long-overdue action.

   

  3. The attitudes of both the local and international human rights bodies regarding the lèse majesté law in Thailand are troubling. Only two points would suffice: A) They consider the Thai monarchy as champion of human rights. B) They do not consider the lady who got 18 year conviction for LM as a prisoner of conscience because her strong criticism of the monarchy was a “hate speech”.

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• A blogger, who had allegedly posted doctored images of Kelantan Mentri Besar, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim. The image is reported to have Nik Abdul Aziz having anal intercourse with Anwar.

   

  Kelantan PAS Security Committee, secretary Major (Rtd) Mohamad Ibrahim, lodged a report on the matter on 8 Feb 2010, after discovering the pictures on the Internet on 6 Feb. Johor police chief, Deputy Comm, Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff confirmed the arrest, according to the news report.

   

  According to another news report, the blogger is currently being held under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, which relates to improper use of network facilities or network service to comment, request or suggest in a communication which is obscene, false, offensive, or used to abuse, threaten or harass another person.

   

  If convicted, the blogger faces a maximum one year jail term and/or a maximum fine of RM50,000.

• Malaysian blogger, Khairul Nizam Abd Ghani, or “Aduka Taruna”, was recently arrested for allegedly insulting the late Sultan of Johor, Sultan Iskandar ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail. According to news reports, the Home Minister, Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, said the blogger will not be let off the hook that easily.
• et his case be a lesson to others who think they can express themselves openly without worrying about repercussions… He has been arrested and will have to wait for the Attorney-General’s Chambers to decide on the appropriate action to be taken against him… Even if he apologised to the Sultan or the public for making the insult, my ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission can still take action against him.
• The blogger was charged on 29 Jan 2010 under Section 233 (1) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which carries a maximum fine of RM50,000 or one year's jail or both upon conviction. It was reported that Deputy Public Prosecutor, Masri Mohd Daud, proposed bail at RM10,000 with one surety. The blogger's counsel pleaded for a lower surety, and the Sessions Court judge, Zamri Bakar, agreed to reduce bail to RM5,000 with one surety.
• oyalists are very much for Khairul Nizam's prosecution, with an Anti-Aduka Taruna campaign taking place on the blogosphere and on Facebook. Former Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said bloggers should stick to the facts and write on a basis of truth, rather than insult people. He was reported to have said:

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• On October 20, 2009, Zouhaïer Makhlouf, a Tunisian human rights activist and writer for Assabil Online was arrested for publishing an online video report investigating the social, economic, and environmental problems in Nabeul (Dar Chaabane El Fehri), a coastal town in northeastern Tunisia.

   

  According to reports by several local human rights organizations someone named Mourad Ladhib brought a case against Mr. Makhlouf accusing him of filming him without permission. Mr Makhlouf denied the charges against him, and refused to sign a police report claiming that his video report was created for the Democratic Progressive Party (a legal political party of which Makhlouf is an active member). Mr. Makhlouf insists he did not film any sensitive areas prohibited by law and accuses the investigator of politicizing the case.

   

  Mr Makhlouf was sent to Mornaguia Prison in the suburbs of Tunis. He began a hunger strike to protest his arrest on October 21, 2009. He is scheduled to be tried in court on November 3, 2009 on defamation charges and could be sentenced up to one year in prison under the Tunisian Telecommunications Code.

   

  On October 26, Tunisian Security officials and plainclothes police surrounded the office of the Democratic Progressive Party to block a rally in support of the detained activist. On the same day, state security also surrounded Mr. Makhlouf's house, preventing his friends from speaking to his wife, who also began a hunger strike on October 22 in support of her husband.

   

  Despite repeated threats, Zouhaïer Makhlouf is one of the most active human rights activists in Tunisia online and offline. He has published several human rights testimonies (video, audio, and text) which broke the silence on many sensitive issues and human rights abuses faced by Tunisian activists and former political prisoners.

   

  On December 1st, 2009, online reporter Zouheir Makhlouf has been sentenced to 3 months prison term and ordered to pay a fine of 6000 dinars.

   

  On January 20, 2010, the appeal court in the city of Nabeul refused to release Zouhair Makhlouf despite his completion of a three-month prison term. And on Februray 10th, 2010, the appeal court increased his term from three to four months. However, two days later, on February 12th, Zouhaier Makhlouf has been released from prison.

• Moroccan blogger Bashir Hazem was arrested on December 8, 2009 following a protest in Tarjijt, during which students clashed with security forces, after posting a press release about the clash on his blog.  He has been interrogated about his blogging, specifically his most recent post, which contained the signatures of a committee of arrested students.

   

  Hazem was detained and put in solitary confinement for a period of time, then rejoined the other detainees in the prison.  Hazem is a 26-year-old student of literature.

   

  A Facebook group [ar] has been created to support blogger Bashir Hazem, who has been detained in Goulmim prison in the south of Morocco for publishing a statement about the intervention of the police force against an inhabitant of the Goulmim, on his blog "Al Boushara" ("the good news").

   

  According to the President of the Moroccan Bloggers Association, Internet cafes in the city are being monitored in order to prevent Internet users from disseminating information about the event, and to prevent riots.  The authorities have also arrested others suspected of spreading news about the protests, including an Internet cafe employee, for possessing protest materials and flyers.

   

  Hazem was tried on December 14, and sentenced to 4 months in prison.  Internet cafe employee Abdullah Boukhour was sentenced to one year in prison and a number of students and activists involved offline in the protest received sentences of six months.

   

  Bachir has been released after the appeal hearing of February 8, in the town of Tiznit (100km south of Agadir).

• More than ever before, censorship seems to become the rule in Tunisia. The last two weeks in the Tunisian blogosphere witnessed a war launched by Ammar (the nickname given to the Tunisian censorship apparatus), who has been censoring blogs arbitrarily.

   

  Following the censorship of Fatma Arabicca and Sofiene Chourabi's blogs, two other blogs had been censored. One of them is the Free Jailed Tunisian students

• The second blog blocked is Nocturnal Thoughts . The censorship of the latter created a wave of protests on the Tunisian blogosphere.

   
• Ammar said that he doesn’t like Nocturnal Thoughts anymore. He prefers afternoon thoughts. Nocturnal Thoughts, the blog of our friend and brother Tarek Kahlaoui, had been censored after more than three years of continuous blogging about interesting and sensitive subjects. In Tunisia, the scissors of censorship acquired new significance. It is no onger a form of oppression and a limit to freedom of expression as it is a medal for the blogger and a certificate from the censor showing the value of a blog and the importance of the subjects it deals with. Congratulations to our friend Tarek and welcome again in the club of censored blogs.
• Matrka(Hammer) blogged saying:
• Blogs connect people and their potential is evolving every day. Nocturnal Thoughts, the blog of Tarek Kahlaoui, is a good blog which deserves reading. Individuals might not be in total agreement with Tarek about one subject or another. Tarek might have a different opinion from a person or another. But the censorship of his blog is a loss. Of course, it is a loss for those who read and are interested in reading, and its censorship is a retarded action and its normal place is in the beginning of the 20th century…
• Samsoum blogged
• I can’t believe that the blog of Tarek Kahlaoui had been censored because I forgot that ”Ammar the Scissors“ does not have a logic to follow in the field of censorship. Maybe he discovered that the subject includes thinking and difficult discourse and decided to avoid risks so he decided to censor the blog immediately and to find an argument for this censorship later on.
   Welcome Tarek in the club of the censored bloggers and I hope that the terrorist actions of Ammar, will give you courage to enlighten us with your thoughts more than before. And my blog is open to you as long as Ammar did not pay attention to it.
   One is really ashamed when he knows that a professor writing in foreign newspapers and teaching the history of art abroad is censored in his own country because he dared to think.

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• Noha:Are you already in jail, or expected to be taken to a prison?

   

  Wael: No, I'm not in jail at the moment, but this might happen after the session of 18th of february.

   

  Noha:Do you know where you will serve the sentence, which prison?!

   

  Wael: No I don't which prison are they going to take me. I'm not sure about that.

   

  Noha: Did you appeal the sentence?

   

  Wael: Yes I did peal the sentence.

   

  Noha:Do you think this sentence have something to do with your blogging activities?

   

  Wael: Well, in the beginning I didn't think that it had anything to do with my blogging. But since my first case was held, a case in which I accused the officer of attacking me at home and breaking my tooth, since it was held and I was sentenced in absentia, I'm sure that there is something fishy behind it.

   

  Noha:How people can show solidarity with you?

   

  Wael: I don't know, it's up to the people. but spreading he word and exposing that this is unjust or this might be motivated by security, government retaliation or something, ..this might help. Because it's totally unjust. I'm accused of something that I didn't do and I'm getting the maximum punishment which is usually given to somebody who tore down a factory or destroyed a farm or tore down a house. And I'm accused of cutting cable, so you go figure! Tank you.

• The National Bureau of Investigation filed the libel complaint against blogger Ella Ganda upon the request of former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Esperanza Cabral, over a blog post, published on October 21, 2009, that exposed stockpiles of unprocessed relief goods intended for victims of supertyphoon Ketsana. Blogger Ella claimed that "employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development had hoarded relief goods that were donated for the victims of the devastating Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international name: Ketsana) and Typhoon “Pepeng” (international name: Parma)".

   

  According to the inquirer.net, the libel case against Ella was "for claiming that relief goods were left to rot in a government agency warehouse".

   

  On her blog, Ella wrote that: "It was never my intention to villify Sec. Cabral, or the good people at the DSWD. My reaction at the sight of tons of relief goods which were apparently not moving was one of anger, of helplessness and dismay."

• The prominent Egypt blogger Wael Abbas has been sentenced 6 months in jail and LE 500 pounds (92 USD) as a judiciary bail, as a lawsuit was filed against him by a citizen and his police officer brother on charges of damaging an internet cable! Wael was ruled in absentia last November.
• Officer Aglan, of Cairo tourist police force, and his brother Ahmed Aglan raided Wael Abbas house and beat him up leading to several injuries on his body and a broken tooth. The officer abused his connections such that his brother would report Wael for damaging the brother’s internet cable
• As Abbas was receiving this bad news; Amnesty international called for the immediate and unconditional release of blogger Hani Nazeer, a prisoner of conscience. Nazeer, a Coptic Christian and blogger from Qina (Upper Egypt) has been detained since October 2008, This was after residents of Qina denounced him for posting on his blog the cover of a book they deemed insulting to Muslims.
• Amnesty International urges the Interior Minister to respect the court decision to release Hani Nazeer and to immediately order the release from administrative detention of all those who are detained under the Emergency Law for whom release orders have been issued by the court. The Minister should also stop misusing emergency powers to curb the right to freedom of expression

• It is expected that Hani Nazeer will remain in Borg al-Arab Prison until a new administrative detention order is issued against him, as has been the case since his arrest in late 2008.

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• A man was arrested and held in police cells for seven hours as a suspected terrorist after making a joke on Twitter about blowing his local airport sky high.
• ‘C**p! Robin Hood Airport is closed,’ he tweeted. ‘You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s*** together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!’.

• ‘They said I was being arrested under the Terrorism Act and produced a piece of paper. It was a print-out of my  Twitter page. That was when it dawned on me.

  "I had to explain Twitter to them in its entirety because they'd never heard of it.

• The lead investigator kept asking, "Do you understand why this is happening?" and saying, "It is the world we live in".

   

  'I would never have thought, in a thousand years, that any of this would have happened because of a Twitter post.

• He said: ‘My advice to anyone using social networking sites is to be very careful what you say, we are living in a sensitive world and anything risque you post could be taken in the wrong way.’
   

  Civil liberties campaigner Tessa Mayes said: 'Making jokes about terrorism is considered a thought crime, mistakenly seen as a real act of harm or intention to commit harm.
• The police's actions seem laughable and suggest desperation in their efforts to combat terrorism, yet they have serious repercussions for all of us. In a democracy, our right to say what we please to each other should be non-negotiable, even on Twitter.'

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• Egyptian appeal court has acquitted blogger Wael Abbas after being sentenced to six months by a lower court. The sentence came last November after an altercation on April 2009 between Abbas and his neighbor and Ahmed Maher Aglan and his police officer brother Ashraf Aglan, for accessing the internet. The two brothers raided Abbas's houses, assaulted him verbally and physically ten sued him for damaging an internet cable.

   

  Arabic Network for Human Rights (ANHRI) offered the legal support to Egyptian blogger. A day before the court, ANHRI described the lawsuit as a ‘fabricated case' and call for solidarity with Wael:

   

  It is known that Wael Abbas has become a target for interior ministry and its officers for more than two years because of his persistent endeavors to broadcast the so called “torture clips”. Officers have repeatedly orchestrated Abbas without being deterred by prosecution 

   

  In its statement released on 18 February, 2010, Reporters without Borders hailed the court order as ‘a victory':

   

  This is a victory for netizens who express their views freely online and a setback for the government and its strategy of harassment and intimidating its critics…We now call for justice to be rendered to the blogger Kareem Amer, who has already served two thirds of his jail sentence and who should be freed unconditionally.