Newsreel

---

Blogger arrested

A BLOGGER who posted comments critical of the country's Islamic authorities has been arrested. The suspect, Abdel-Karim Suleiman, 22, a human rights lawyer, was detained in his hometown coastal city of Alexandria for questioning by the state security department. He was arrested Monday.

Suleiman reportedly lashed out at Al-Azhar University from which he was expelled earlier this year because of his on-line writings in which he strongly criticised the rise of religion in daily life and its effect on public behaviour. He was quoted as saying that despite opposing Al-Azhar ideology, he enrolled at the request of his parents.

"I say to Al-Azhar and its university, its professors and preachers who stand against anyone who thinks differently from them: 'you are destined for the rubbish bin of history where you will find no one to cry for you, and your regime will end like others have,'" Suleiman was quoted as saying.

In October 2005, Suleiman was arrested after posting a vitriolic comment condemning the Muslim reaction to a Coptic Christian play which sparked violent clashes after it was deemed offensive by some Muslims.

Suleiman's arrest took place on the same day that the Paris-based international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders published a list of 13 countries it described as "enemies of the Internet".

Blogs became a key forum for dissidents in 2005 when popular protest movements briefly flourished and political organisations mounted an unprecedented challenge to President Hosni Mubarak during his presidential campaign.

Judges respond

THE CAIRO Judges Club is fervently mobilising its members to attend the General Assembly scheduled for 17 November, which will discuss ways of dealing with the financial situation of the club. The assembly, expected to be very heated, comes on the heels of the Ministry of Justice's decision to freeze the club's annual subsidy.

The assembly will also attempt to devise a strategy to deal with the new Justice Minister Mamdouh Mar'ie, who is overtly hostile towards reformist judges. It is said that at upon his taking on office last August, Mar'ie had vowed to shut down judges clubs across the country.

It appears that several state bodies joined hands with Mar'ie to achieve this goal. Last week, the Alexandria Electricity Holding Company threatened to cut off power from the Alexandria Judges Club if it did not pay its due electricity bills, estimated at LE26,000. The same threat was issued to the State Council's Judges Club which owes the Ministry of Electricity LE42,000.

In the absence of the Ministry of Justice's subsidy, which is considered to be the main source of funding for such clubs, paying the electricity bill is a heavy financial burden on them. "It's the state's tactic to pressure judges and close down their clubs," noted Judge Ahmed Mekki, commenting on the fierce battle the state is waging against judges clubs.

All parties have a say

TODAY, the leftist Tagammu Party will end a two-day seminar on constitutional reform, which was begun at the party's headquarters yesterday. One of the seminar's eight sessions tackled the issue of judiciary independence as a guarantee for reform. Judge Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, chairman of the Alexandria Judges Club who sparked the judges' Intifada for judicial reform, headed the session.

Representatives from all political walks were invited to attend, including the ruling National Democratic Party represented by Alieddin Hilal, the NDP secretary-general for the media committee. In an unprecedented move, the Tagammu Party even sent an invitation to a representative of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, a prominent member of the Brotherhood's guidance bureau, was asked to participate and present the group's ideas about constitutional reform.

According to Hussein Abdel-Razeq, the Tagammu Party's secretary-general, the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood in the conference does not reflect any kind of future rapprochement between the party and the group. "Our stance towards the group is the same," stressed Abdel-Razeq.

Leaders of the Tagammu have been recently criticised by prominent party members for adopting a harsh stance towards the Brotherhood, the most influential political group in Egypt by some accounts. In fact, party Chairman Rifaat El-Said was repeatedly asked to stop attacking the group in order not to provoke public religious feelings, something which -- many party members argued -- has led the party to lose its former popularity.

Train driver released

THE PROSECUTOR-general ordered on Monday the release of Ashraf Abul-Azm, the driver of the passenger train which crashed last September with a cargo train near Shebin El-Qanatir, Qalyoubia, killing three people and injuring around 36 others. Mohamed Ramadan, a railway technician, was also released.

The prosecutor's release order was issued shortly after protests by train drivers against an earlier decision by Banha Prosecution to renew the imprisonment of the two suspects for another 15 days. Abul-Azm and Ramadan are facing charges of murder and harming public utilities.

Protesting the Banha decision, some 150 train drivers staged a strike on Sunday at Cairo's main Railway Station. The angry drivers called for the release of their colleague, who according to them should not be made a scapegoat. Several technical reports had confirmed that the driver should not bear all responsibility for the collision, which was caused by technical problems.

The Shebin Al-Qanatir collision was the second deadly train incident this year. In August, and in the same governorate, another bloody train crash took place killing over 55 and injuring many more. The two incidents reflect the extent of deterioration in the railway service which is in need of a complete overhaul.

Jihadists on strike

AT ABU ZAABAL prison, around 800 political detainees belonging to the militant Jihad group started a hunger strike on Sunday, in protest against the appalling treatment and physical torture they are subject to. The demonstrators also expressed their anger at the recent decision passed by prison officials banning detainees from meeting visitors, even during last month's Eid El-Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan.

Relatives of the detainees also complained that many of the prisoners had already served their jail terms, but have not been released yet.

Compiled by Mona El-Nahhas