While the past year has witnessed several rare convictions in cases of torture and police abuse, leading analysts and international media argue a potential heightened government intolerance of police brutality. Rights groups urge the authorities to take “more systematic steps” to rid the country of its alleged torture practices.
Once considered a taboo issue, hardly tapped by the media, the numerous high-profile cases of police abuse and torture combined with increased advocacy against the practices and a film about police brutality have spurred discussion on the topic.
But journalists, activists, and bloggers who have shed light on cases of torture were not beyond the reach of authorities.
Tag: courts
Court rejects ban on blogs
Some good news for a change… Gamal Eid called a minute ago to say that Judge Murad’s case was thrown out. Our blogs and websites won’t be blocked. Gamal will issue a statement today with more details…
Mabrouk for all of us.
UPDATE: A statement on today’s verdict.
Judge Murad Vs Bloggers: Verdict out on 29 Dec
On Dec 29, we shall finally get the verdict in Judge Murad‘s lawsuit against the govt, demanding the banning of 51 websites and blogs including mine, under the claim that they are harmful to national security and insulting to the president.
The Arabic network for human rights information and Hisham Mubarak Law Center, two human rights organizations, stated today that the next Saturday December 29, 2007, will witness a very significant event. The administrative court will issue a sentence that will affect the future of internet & its freedom in Egypt. The sentence will be issued in the case that was filed by the judge Abdul Fattah Murad last February. Judge Murad launched his case demanding the banning of 51 websites in Egypt. He alleged that such websites defame, in their contents, the Egyptian government. The case came as a consequence of the detection of an assault against the intellectual property of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information by Judge Murad, as he published a profiting book containing dozens of copied pages pages of one of the network reports without referring to the source.