The State Security Arrest a Blogger under the State of Emergency Law
Said the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and Hisham Mubarak Law Center today, that the state security investigation apparatus had arrested the young blogger Mohamed Refaat, the editor of the blog Matabbat http://matabbat.blogspot.com, turning a blind eye to the supreme state security prosecution order to release him since 17th of August last week.The state security apparatus had raided Mohamed Refaat’s home early in the morning on 21st of July 2008 in his absence, and seized his PC, and many of his books, and when Mohamed Refaat approached the officer “ Hisham Tawfik” in the morning in the state security offices, he shocked by the fabricated charges of “inciting to strike on the occasion of 23rd July”, he was then referred to the state security prosecution office in the case no. 1143 for the year 2008. The state security had decided to release him on 17th of August, but the state security investigation agency had taken him once again to the state security investigation quarters, and withheld him for a week, until an order to arrest him was issued under the state emergency law.
Mohamed Refaat was arrested and detained for more into a lawsuit that the state security failed to provide any proof for their claimed allegations. He was not caught while committing any offenses and his blog did not include any thing about this alleged strike. He was accused of “offending the state institutions, destabilizing the public security, and inciting for demonstrations and strikes via internet” and these charges need no evidence!!
What clarify that this police apparatus is no more subject to accountability or monitoring even by the Ministry of Interior which assumingly is overseeing it.
The both rights institutions said: “Mohamed Refaat, student in faculty of Media, did not commit any offense, and the security apparatus allegations about his blog are not true, and instead of apologies for the bitter days he spent in detention, he is being held under the hateful state of emergency’s law”.
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
Hisham Mubarak Law Center