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Sunday, January 14, 2007 

Egypt's human rights record - better than Syria?

Egypt has arrested Al Jazeera reporter Huweida Taha Metwalli in a human rights scandal that just gets worse and worse.

Last year police raped a male prisoner by inserting a stick inside him. To make it even worse, the abusers filmed the whole thing. Inevitably, the video found its way to the internet AFTER he had been released.

The Egyptian authorities went mad, and blamed the prisoner. He was arrested again for "resisting authority" (apparently, he didn't smile while he was being raped).

And now Al Jazeera are making a documentary about the whole thing.

Egypt has 20,000 political prisoners. Syria has 600. Neither of those numbers is a good situation to be in, but it's just a little reminder when you label states as 'moderate'.

Keep up to date with this story at the excellent The Arabist blog.

About me

  • Written by sasa
  • From Damascus, Syria
  • From Damascus to London via Beirut. Based in and out of the central Damascene hamlet of Saroujah. News and feelings from the streets every day. I'm talking rubbish? Leave a comment. Welcome to the information democracy. See below for info about this site.
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