Egyptian: Second blogger arrested in less than a week

• Posted 10 February 2009 12:33 GMT
• Written by Noha Atef
• Read this post in Nederlands, Français, Malagasy

In less than a week, two Egyptian bloggers were arrested. The recent arrest occurred yesterday, February 9th, 2009, when central security forces broke into Diaa Eddin Gad, the owner of Sawt Ghadib blog (An Angry Voice). So far, the police did not reveal the reason behind his arrest or where he was being detained.

“Bloggers have become a major target of the police authorities in Egypt and all these assaults are committed outside the law or under the cloak of the emergency state“, the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI ) said in a statement.

Lawyers with ANHRI's legal aid unit for the support of freedom and expression demanded in their report to the attorney general that there should be an immediate investigation into the kidnapping and of the 22-year-old student.

Gad's blog, Sawt Ghadib, contains pro-Gaza slogans and news and commentary on the Israeli war in Gaza strip, as well as strident denunciations of President Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian security services.

The other arrested bloggers was on Friday, as police detained Egyptian-German political activist and blogger during a march in support of Gaza near Cairo. Philip Rizk launched a webpage exclusively on the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.

On monday, February 09, 2009, and according to a separate release, the AHNRI reported that security officers broke into the Rizk's house searching it and demanding Rizk's father accompany them to his office:

Egyptian police threatened to use force on Rizk's father, also a dual national, if he refused, but was dissuaded by the presence of a lawyer from the Network and an official from the German embassy

Egyptian blogsphere staged a protest seeking the freedom of Rizk, created a blog calling on releasing him at philiprizk.org and his colleagues are circulating updates on his arrest on Jaiku micro-blogging service.