| James Love (by way of Felix Stalder) on Thu, 29 Nov 2001 16:07:03 +0100 (CET) |
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| [Nettime-bold] Egyptian new internet police and post of a poem |
[Originally to: <[email protected]>] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Hague-jur-commercial-law] Egyptian new internet police and post of a poem Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 15:08:26 -0500 From: Manon Ress <[email protected]> Organization: Essential Information To: haguelist <[email protected]> http://www.africast.com/article.cfm?newsID=28485 Poet's son held by 'web' police in Egypt CAIRO, November 26 -- Egyptian police have arrested the son of a poet and playwright who posted his father's unpublished and allegedly obscene magnum opus on the web, his lawyer said on Sunday. The case indicates that a newly-formed internet police unit is now hunting the web for alleged crimes, and represents a test case for freedom of expression, says lawyer Hafez Abu Saada. Shohdy Naguib was arrested on Thursday night on charges of "distributing immoral materials" for having published his father's poem on a server outside of Egypt, Abu Saada says. The prosecutor ordered on Sunday Naguib's release on bail, Abu Saada said, but not before the police had transferred him between numerous police stations. The poem in question, which is still posted on the web, is often referred to as the "Ummiyat" (roughly, "Mother Verses"). The poem uses highly graphic language, and has been described by one critic as "a direct and forceful stream of abuse, invective and lyricism" aimed at Egyptian officialdom, whom Surur blames for losing the 1967 war against Israel and other failings. Surur, whom many Egyptian critics consider to be a troubled poetic and theatrical genius, died in 1978. Although the Ummiyat was never published in his lifetime, it has been available on-line for at least three years. Naguib could not be reached for comment. The case represents the first prosecution related to allegedly obscene materials posted on a non-Egyptian web server, Abu Saada says. "The case is strange. If (Naguib) distributed it, he distributed it outside of Egypt," the lawyer said. An Egyptian gay website is also claiming that Egyptian security is monitoring those who visit it, and Egyptian gays have claimed that officers set up sting operations via the web by setting up false dates on gay chat sites. Twenty-three allegedly gay men were handed prison sentences by a Cairo court on 14 November for "habitual debauchery" and other charges. - Sapa/AFP -- Manon Anne Ress [email protected], voice: 1.202.387.8030 _______________________________________________ Hague-jur-commercial-law mailing list [email protected] http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/hague-jur-commercial-law _______________________________________________ Random-bits mailing list [email protected] http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/random-bits _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list [email protected] http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold