Egyptian blogger vows to go on hunger strike

A 28 year old blogger imprisoned in Egypt for posting material on his site that was highly critical of Islam and occasionally of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s hierarchy has decided to go on a hunger strike, so as to raise awareness of freedom of speech. Egyptian legislation allows for the justice system to strike down on those who publically insult religion or religious groups. Hani Nazeer worked as a secondary school social worker in the Egyptian town of Qena and while he himself is a Coptic Christian, the blogger has been critical of both the country’ majority religion, Islam, as well as the leadership of his own church. Nazeer was actually arrested in October 2008, after writing an online fictitious novel which was highly critical of Islam’s growing role in Egyptian civil society, and uploading this to his blog.

Bizarrely, Nazeer has never been charged, even though he has now spent over a year in jail. The blogger and his supporters were hoping that Egyptian courts would release him this week, but he just found out that his application had been rejected. While Nazeer’s lawyer demanded that the Interior Ministry explain why the prominent blogger was still in prison without ever being charged, he reportedly received no response.

Egypt’s state security agency first detained Nazeer on 3 October 2008 and transported him to Burj Al-Arab prison, where he has been ever since. While the blogger’s lawyer indicated that he would submit another petition for his client’s release, Nazeer has threatened to go on an extended hunger strike, if he is not released this week. The blogger claims that he faces constant pressure in prison to drop his Coptic Christian faith and convert to Islam, and even the jail guards take part in the taunting.