Egypt

A producer for Al Jazeera's documentary channel, Howayda Taha Matwali was arrested by Egyptian policy on January 8, 2007, at Cairo International Airport. Her bags were searched and tapes for a documentary on Egyptian torture were found with scenes re-enacting such event. On January 13, 2007, Ms Matwali was indicted by Supreme State Security Court prosecutor Hisham Badawi on charges of "harming the national interest" and "fabricating images prejudicial to the country's reputation."

epub reader get offline version. Status: Political prisoner

Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, who goes by the name Kareem Amer, is a 22-year old blogger from Egypt. At the beginning of 2006, he was expelled from Al Azhar University because he publicly condemned the "religious and authoritarian excesses" of the Egyptian government under Hosni Mubarak and made other critical remarks about Islam.

After his expulsion, he was arrested in his Alexandria home by Egyptian police on November 6, 2006. According to Reporters Sans Frontieres, Amer was accused of "spreading rumours endangering public security" and "defamation of President Mubarak." He has not been allowed to see family or a lawyer since.

Status: Tortured political prisoner

A driver who interfered when he saw his cousin beaten by plainclothes men who turned out to be undercover officers, Imad al-Kabir (also Emad Kabeer) became a cause celebre when video of his torture in police custody began circulating on various Egyptian blogs (the video is viewable below, but viewers should be cautioned of graphic material). The torture occurred around January 18, 2006, and he has since filed lawsuits against his alleged oppressors,