Jailed blogger singled out for mistreatment, lawyers say in complaint

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the state of health of jailed blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman and said it supported the complaint which his three lawyers filed yesterday accusing a prison official, identified as Medhat Samir, of conspiring to have him mistreated and held him in solitary confinement. Better known by the blog name of “Kareem Amer,” Suleiman has been held in Borg Al Arab prison near Alexandria since his arrest on 6 November 2006. “We support this initiative by Kareem Amer's lawyers and we call for his release,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He was unjustly convicted for criticising the Mubarak government's religious and authoritarian excesses in his blog. He has now been held in bad condition for more than a year . We think he has served enough of this sentence.” In his letters, Suleiman is referring to the “physical and moral” torture to which he is being subjected. He said he was “handcuffed and beaten” and then thrown into an isolation cell, where he was given hardly any food or water. “I have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” he said. In one of the letters, Suleiman asked his lawyer, Rawda Ahmed, to bring a complaint against Medhat Samir and the prison doctor who, he said, had falsified a medical report. Referring to the complaint filed yesterday, one of his lawyers said: “We do not hold out a lot of hope, but we want justice to be done.” Suleiman's friends continue to campaign for his release. “He looks more haggard and drawn in every photo we get from him,” a member of his support committee said. “His life will be in danger if he is not released quickly.” Suleiman was sentenced on 22 February to three years in prison for “inciting hatred of Islam” and another year in prison for insulting President Hosni Mubarak. As well as criticising the government in his blog, he criticised Egypt's leading religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law.