An Egyptian judge, who chairs the court that is to hear a blogger’s appeal against a four-year jail sentence that drew criticism from around the world, is seeking to gag 21 websites, a judicial source told Agence France-Presse on Sunday.
The chairperson of the appeals court in the second city of Alexandria, Abdel Fattah Murad, has taken the unusual step of applying to the administrative court for an injunction to close down the websites for allegedly harming the reputation of President Hosni Mubarak, the sources said.
The revelation came on the eve of the opening hearing of Abdel Karim Suleiman’s appeal against his conviction for insulting Islam and defaming Mubarak.
Among the websites targeted by the judge’s petition is one run by the secular opposition party Kefaya (Change), said the head of the Arab Network for Information on Human Rights, Gamal Eid.
”We’re worried that he [Murad] will ending up presiding at the appeal as we know his hostility to freedom of expression and opinion,” said Eid, who is also one of Suleiman’s defence lawyers.
The 22-year-old blogger, also known by his pen name Karim Amer, was arrested in November last year after posting an entry on his blog hitting out at Cairo’s al-Azhar University — Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning.
”I say to al-Azhar and its university and its professors and preachers who stand against anyone who thinks differently to them: ‘You are destined for the rubbish bin of history, where you will find no one to cry for you, and your regime will end like others have,” he wrote.
His jailing sparked a chorus of criticism from human rights groups around the world, but Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was unrepentant last month.
”No one has the right to interfere with Egyptian legal matters or comment on Egypt’s decisions,” Abul Gheit said on February 23.
Egypt rejects the reactions of ”certain foreign media and non-governmental organisations,” he added, citing his ”indignation” and ”disapproval”. ‒ Sapa-AFP