CAIRO — A blogger whose postings have been critical of the government was arrested less than a week after rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized Egypt for detaining the writer of another personal Web log.
Rami Siyam was at least the fifth blogger Egypt has detained this year. He has been running his blog since May, 2005, and his postings have included criticism of alleged police torture.
A police officer said he was detained for questioning and transferred to the Delta Nile city of Belbeis for further interrogation.
“Police want to know if he is involved in criminal activities,” the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He did not say whether Mr. Siyam's detention Sunday had any connection to items critical of the government which he posted on his blog.
Blogs are a key outlet for opposition views in Egypt, where the state dominates the media.
Amnesty and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have both criticized Egypt for arresting bloggers, saying it restricts freedom of expression.
Earlier this month, Reporters Without Borders put Egypt in a club of the 13 worst culprits for systematic online censorship along with Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Blogging took off in Egypt in 2004 at a time when domestic political activists and the U.S. stepped up calls for political reform.
Last month, a handful of bloggers reported that a group of young men had sexually harassed women at night in downtown Cairo in full view of police who did not intervene. The bloggers, who claimed to have witnessed the attacks or spoken to witnesses, said the assailants were groups of young men and boys. They argued that the police's failure to intervene was a sign of mismanagement and corruption in the force.
The government denied that such assaults took place and accused the bloggers of defaming Egypt.
Blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil was detained earlier this month. His friends posted an item on the Internet that said he appeared to have been detained over an article he recently wrote on his blog dealing with Islam.
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