I have just been informed by a university student who attended our conference in Cairo this August that he has been told to report tomorrow to the prosecutor’s office for interrogation. If I don’t hear back from him by tomorrow evening, I’ll be alerting people to contact his country’s embassies for information on his status.
The potential crimes about which he is being interrogated (and for which he was arrested and detained earlier) concern informing the public on his Arabic-blog about police misconduct.
I hope that the authorities don’t further compound their misconduct by jailing this brave young man. But if they do, they should at the very least know that people are watching them. (Thank God for the Internet, which allowed him to alert people to police misconduct and now to alert his friends to the harassment he is facing for it.)
please keep us updated.
While you are at it, inform Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — both groups have put pressure on states to stop persecuting political prisoners, successfully sometimes.
It’s good to have a network. One of our friends in his country contacted him and found that he was not planning on going with a lawyer, so they have provided him with one. AI and HRW are on the list if anything bad happens to him.
I will keep people informed if he needs help. Otherwise, I’d rather not piss off the prosecutor any more and hope that they don’t detain him. If they do, a suitably appropriate pressure campaign to let this young man be free will be launched.
I have also received notice that blogs in Bahrain are being shut down for allegedly un-Islamic content (in fact, for promoting respect for freedom of speech). I will post information as I find out more. (That may not be the best case for non-Muslims to apply pressure; better for it to come from other Muslims, it seems to me.) Information is available at http://www.mideastyouth.com.
Aha, Bahrain then are we talking about Mahmood ? http://mahmood.tv/ ?
Is there any update on his case?
Hello? anybody home?
Sorry, I’ve been quite busy.
So far, the news is good. The network of bloggers who came out of the Cairo conference included some very good friends who arranged for a lawyer to accompany him to the meeting with the state prosecutor. He was told to come by for a new appointment Wednesday and he will go with his lawyer. So far, so good.