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Egypt: Egyptian Bloggers Plan Festival of Torture Videos
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International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
PRESS RELEASE
27 November 2007
Posted to the web 28 November 2007
Egyptian bloggers, often at the forefront of exposing human rights abuses, are planning an online festival of torture videos to run alongside the 31st Cairo Film Festival, from 27 November to 7 December.
According to the "Middle East Times", the parallel festival is the invention of a blogger named Walid, and will feature "controversial acts of torture allegedly committed by the security authorities." Prizes, including a "Golden Whip", will be awarded to the best entrants.
Egypt's bloggers have exposed many incidents of police torture. In a rare case of security forces being sentenced for abusing detainees, two policemen got three years in jail for torturing a man in their custody earlier this month. Footage of the abuse filmed with a mobile phone was widely distributed on YouTube and sparked nationwide and international outrage.
But bloggers who are critical of the government can also find themselves as victims. Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, who is serving a four-year jail term for insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak, has recently been tortured while in custody, reports the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo). Amer, the first blogger to stand trial in Egypt for his Internet postings, has three more years left in his sentence.
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