reportedly experienced months of harassment by local authorities.
The international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said writer Hala Helmy Botros, who is based in Qina near Luxor in central Egypt, was forced to close down her blog Aqbat Bela Hodood, or ‘Copts Without Borders’ about the plight of Copts and to stop writing on this subject for other websites.
Botros, 42, who wrote under the pseudonym of Hala El-Masry, is now the target of a judicial investigation and is banned from leaving the country, the group said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife.
"We are outraged by the practices used by the Egyptian authorities to intimidate and silence Botros," Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said. "With relations between Christians and Muslims off-limits in the traditional media, all she did was write posts on the Internet about the fate of the Coptic minority. It is unacceptable that freedom of expression and movement should be restricted in this fashion. We insist that the authorities guarantee Botros’ basis rights."
In articles, interviews and video reports online, Botros had accused the political authorities and police of complicity in the attacks against Copts on January 19 when they tried to restore their church in the village of Edyssat, near Luxor. Houses were apparently burned and the church was destroyed in the course of this violence, in which two Copts were killed and several others injured.
AUTHORITIES "IRRITATED"
"Her posts clearly irritated the authorities as first her phone line was cut and then her Internet connection, forcing her to go to her father’s house to continue posting," Reporters Without Borders said.
"The authorities allegedly placed her under surveillance and one night, her father was reportedly beaten by two strangers who told him, ‘This is a present from your daughter’," the group added.
When he went to the police he was allegedly forced sign a blank sheet to which they added a statement in which he appeared to accuse her of being responsible for the attack.
Botros reacted by filing a complaint against the police officer, accusing him of false charges, but authorities did not pursue the case, the group claimed.
ISLAMIC EXTREMISM
Egyptian officials were not immediately available for comment. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has made clear however he want to tackle Islamic extremism, but Christian rights groups say not enough has been done and claim police has often been reluctant or even involved in cases of abuse.
News of the shutdown of a website came amid other claims of persecution of Copts. Compass Direct News agency said families of five jailed Christians have lost their homes northeast of Cairo after authorities persuaded them to turn over their property in exchange for what was supposed to be the release of relatives accused of murder. The release never came.
Abdel Masih Awad Sayeed, 86, and four relatives in Sharkeya province have reportedly been in police custody since December 11.
Officials detained the five after the death of a Muslim the previous day prompted rioting in the village of Kafr Salama Ibrahim. Medical examiners concluded that injuries to Mohammed Ahmad Abu Talib, received when he intervened on his son’s behalf in a fight with two of the Christian men, could not have caused his death, but the two Christians and three relatives are charged with "conspiracy to murder" Talib, Compass Direct News said.
BROTHERS COUSIN
The Christian brothers’ cousin, Milad Samy Zaki, was quoted as saying that after the fight Talib
suffered a stroke and died minutes later.
Authorities allegedly proposed that the Christians pay Talib’s family 1 million Egyptian pounds (US$173,900) in compensation – half of which, officials said, they had already paid with the destruction of their homes. The Christians subsequently signed over deeds for five of their properties on the understanding that this would fulfill their 500,000 Egyptian pound “debt” and secure their release.
On June 15, Botros attempted to discusses these cases by flying to the United States to attend a conference about the Copts in Newark, New Jersey. "But authorities removed her from the airplane before it took off, on grounds that she was banned from leaving the country," Reporters Without Borders said.
"She was questioned for several hours at the airport and ordered to report to a state security court in Cairo on June 25."
HOME RAIDED
Security agents reportedly raided her home on the night of June 22 with the apparent intention of arresting her, but she was in Cairo at the time. Her husband was allegedly forced to go with them and to sign a statement guaranteeing that she would report to the court three days later.
Botros went to the court with two lawyers, Mamdouh Ramzy and Naguib Gobraeil, on June 25. She was questioned about her Internet posts and accused of "spreading false news" and of "disrupting social harmony between the Muslim and Christian communities." She was apparently released the same day after paying 3,000 Egyptian pounds (400 euros) in bail, but was questioned again the next day.
Fearing for her safety and the safety of her family, Botros finally decided to shut down her blog, Reporters Without Borders said. She is being watched by plain-clothes police while her telephone is tapped and her e-mail monitored, the organization claimed.
Christian observers say Egypt has suffered from a rise in Christian-Muslim violence in recent years. Christian leaders have voiced concerns that the government consistently fails to protect the rights of its largest religious minority, which, due to the absence of an official census, is estimated to range anywhere from eight million to 15 million people. (With reports from Egypt, France and BosNewsLife Research).
