III. Prosecutions and Other Security Interventions

20. On 3 October 2008, Hani Nazir Aziz turned himself in to the police at the Abu Tisht station in the Qena governorate. Reports in the press and online stated that Hani Nazir, a blogger and social worker at a school, found the police were looking for him in connection with rumors spreading in the village of al-'Aila in the Abu Tisht district that he had published material insulting to Islam on his blog. The reports added that he decided to turn himself in after the police detained his sister for three days to compel him to surrender. Father Kyrillos, the bishop of Naga' Hamadi, told EIPR researchers that a release order was issued for the blogger in late November 2008, but he remained in detention when this report was published in January 2009.

21. On 18 October 2008, the State Security Investigation office in Fayoum summoned three Christians with the evangelical community (two men and one woman) for questioning after receiving complaints from their neighbors and the guard of the building in which they live that they were placing Christian religious publications, flyers, and tapes in front of some of the apartments in the building. A source in the evangelical church told EIPR researchers that the three had been questioned for nearly three hours and released the same day.

22. At dawn on 27 October 2008, State Security Investigation officers in the governorate of Sharqiya arrested blogger Reda Abdel-Rahman due to his adoption of Qur'anist thought and his expression of it on his blog, Justice Freedom Peace. Police officers raided the blogger’s home in the village of Abu Hereiz, located in the Kafr Saqr district of Sharqiya, and confiscated his personal computer and several books, CDs, and cassette tapes before taking him to an unknown location. On 29 October 2008, lawyers with the EIPR filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor (no. 17973/2008) asking that the detainee’s location be disclosed and his family and attorney be allowed to visit him. The Interior Ministry then moved the blogger to the Tora Prison pursuant to an administrative detention order issued under the Emergency Law.

On 14 December 2008, a Supreme State Security Emergency Court issued an order ending Reda Abdel-Rahman’s detention after a petition filed by the EIPR (no. 4823/2008). The Interior Ministry contested the decision, but the court rejected the appeal on 6 January 2009 and upheld its previous decision to release the detainee.

The detained blogger was questioned by the State Security prosecutor while in administrative detention, and on 6 December 2008, the prosecutor charged him with "contempt of Islam" after questioning him about his religious beliefs and opinions, his faith in the Prophetic Sunna, and his manner of praying. The blogger was also questioned on 8 January 2009, after which the prosecutor ordered his release. Nevertheless, he was still unlawfully detained at the State Security complex in Zagazig when this report was published in mid-January.

The blogger, 32, is a social worker at a preparatory school run by al-Azhar. On his blog, in July 2008, he said that he had been summoned for questioning by the Azhar legal affairs office about articles he had published online. He said he was pressured and threatened to compel him to sign an affidavit pledging “not to publish any articles on the internet or any religious writings.”

23. On 13 December 2008, Cairo airport police arrested Martha Samuel and her husband, Fadl Thabet, as they attempted to travel to Russia, after police officers discovered that Samuel’s real name was Zeinab Said Abdel -Aziz and that she had falsified her personal identity card to show that she had converted to Christianity, and later married a Christian and obtained a passport using the falsified information. The same day, the police also arrested two administrative employees at the Murqusiya Church in Alexandria on charges of helping her obtain the falsified documents.

The Nuzha prosecutor’s office ordered the release of the defendant’s husband on 12 December 2008, but EIPR researchers received information indicating that he is still being detained in the Sidi Gaber police station in Alexandria and that he had been questioned by State Security Investigations officers in Alexandria more than once. The other three defendants were still in custody when this report was published.