Ayoub (Ramy Siyam) was released in the early hours of the morning, after bloggers and political activists in Sharqiyya threatened to march on State Security’s office in Zagazig, where he was to be interrogated today.
UPDATE: Here’s an AP report on Ayoub’s release and Kareem’s detention renewal:
One Egyptian blogger released but another ordered detained for 2 more weeks
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
CAIRO _ An Egyptian blogger was released Thursday, four days after authorities detained him, but another blogger, first arrested earlier this month, has had his detention extended by more than two weeks, police and activists said.
Rami Siyam was detained in downtown Cairo early Sunday for questioning, a police officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Siyam has been running his blog since May 2005, posting material critical to the government including information on police torture and political opponents.
The officer did not say whether Siyam’s detention had any connection with anti-government items he had posted on his blog.
Fellow blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil, who was first arrested on Nov. 7, had his detention extended on Wednesday by 15 days, police said. Authorities would not say why he was arrested and why his detentions was extended.
Nabils’ friends had posted an item on the Internet that said he appeared to have been detained over an article he recently wrote on his blog dealing with Islam.
Amnesty International and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have both criticized Egypt’s arresting of bloggers as restricting freedom of expression. the Paris-based RCF has included Egypt in “Enemies of the Internet” report issued this month.
The government has not issued any official comment.
Blogging took off in Egypt in 2004 at a time domestic political activists and the U.S. stepped up calls for political reform.
Last month, a handful of Internet bloggers reported that a group of young men had sexually harassed women at night in downtown Cairo in full view of police who did not intervene.
The bloggers, who claimed to have witnessed the attacks or spoken to witnesses, said the assailants were groups of young men and boys. They argued that the police’s failure to intervene was a sign of mismanagement and corruption in the force.
The government denied that such assaults took place and accused the bloggers of defaming Egypt.