Israel Matzav

Our 'friends' the Egyptians

Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey reports that Abdel Karim Soliman, now known as Karim Amer, who got jailed for "disdain for religion" and "insulting the president" on his blog, is being tortured by the prison authorities.

I wish I could say I am surprised by this, but I have heard and seen so much of this, that, as horribly as that sounds, it kind of becomes expected. We are ruled and governed by Monsters who have no respect for our human rights or dignity. They just waited until his story wasn't that "Hot" anymore and went ahead with it. In this country, with the exception of those of us who believe in human rights, who is gonna defend him? A guy who insulted the prophet getting tortured? The public response is gonna be : "Good. That's exactly the kind of person who should be tortured! Make an example out of him." God knows that the day of his sentencing, and I was there for the majority of the trial, the public outside were debating how he should be killed. Some were like, "he should be hanged", others were like, "No, we need to go islamic on this. Behead him.", while others demanded that people have some common sense and instead of being all barbaric with the beheading, they should "just stab him". And that's the average egyptian on the street. Imagine the people in prison's reaction. And then ask yourself: would the sadistic bastards who run our prison system think twice about torturing this guy? They might've during the trial, when the spotlight was on him. But now? Forget about it. He is fairgame, and his jailers know it.

Unfortunately, Karim Amer's treatment is the norm in the Arab-Muslim world. Think about Saddam Hussein's Iraq or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran to name two countries in which we have recently heard similar stories. How do you make 'peace' with these people? You hold your nose and hope you never see them again.

Update 9:40 PM

The Jerusalem Post reports that Karim's lawyers filed a complaint this week.

Lawyers with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and Hisham Mubarak Centre for Law demanded in the complaint, filed this week, that the prosecutor-general investigate the alleged abuses against their client, Abdel Kareem Nabil, who was sentenced in February to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

/A lot of good that's likely to do

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:49 PM