Egypt jails Facebook activists for 'threatening national security'

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

CAIRO (AFP) — Police have arrested 26 Internet activists in the port of Alexandria, and 14 of them were jailed for more than two weeks for "threatening national security," a security official said on Thursday.

Around 30 young Egyptians who belong to the so-called "6 April" group on social networking site Facebook, a group which earlier this year called for a day of protests at rising prices, gathered in Alexandria on Wednesday.

"We were heading for Sidi Beshr beach but a policeman prevented us getting there because we had a large kite painted with the Egyptian flag and we were wearing T-shirts with 'April 6 Movement' on," said Mohammed Abdel Aziz.

He said that in the evening the group was walking along the seafront singing nationalist songs when police...