Dad's 'Immoral' Poem Exiles Son 

An Egyptian appeals court has confirmed the guilty verdict in the case of Shohdy Naguib Surur, who was sentenced to one year in prison in June for posting his father's poem on the Internet.

But Egypt's first Web prisoner of conscience is still at large -- in Moscow.

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• Dad's 'Immoral' Poem Exiles Son

Shohdy's father, the revered Egyptian poet Naguib Surur, who died in 1978, wrote the satirical poem after Egypt was defeated in the 1967 war against Israel. He condemned the Egyptian government and politics, using explicit sexual imagery and colloquial street Arabic. The poem was never published in Egypt but has been disseminated there through underground cassette tapes of Naguib Surur's readings.

Three years ago, Shohdy posted the poem on a U.S.-hosted website he managed at the time. The poem is now available on the Index on Censorship site.

Shohdy was earlier charged in an Egyptian court with possessing "immoral booklets and prints." Egyptian officials presented the case as a pornography violation, but there is no doubt that the case is politically motivated.

Shohdy, who was born in Moscow to a Russian mother and an Egyptian father, is one of Russia's online pioneers. A few years ago he moved to Egypt where he worked as a webmaster for the English-language newspaper Al-Ahram.

He was arrested in November and held for only a few days. After the trial in June, he was released on bail to wait for the appeal. Using his double citizenship, Shohdy returned to Moscow, where he remains.

"I have no illusions whatsoever regarding the justice system in Egypt," Shohdy said. "In the safety of exile and with an unlimited access to the Internet, I am having great fun discrediting and exposing the unlawful regime."

In Shohdy's absence, the appeals court confirmed the verdict of one year in prison last week -- cementing his status as the first person in the world convicted in court for publishing poetry online.

In August, a few dozen Internet activists, journalists and friends of Shohdy's picketed the Egyptian embassy in Moscow. They also delivered a letter to the embassy secretary that supports Shohdy and freedom of expression signed by more than 300 people.

"First of all, the picket was an attempt to attract attention to the problem of censorship on the Net," said Russian Internet activist Nastik Gryzunova. "Shohdy is a victim of persecution, no matter whether is he in jail or in exile. We know that censorship on the Internet is not solely an Egyptian problem."

A similar petition was delivered to the Egyptian embassy in Paris. A handful of international human rights organizations, including Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International expressed their support for Shohdy.

Shohdy's 11-year-old daughter, Donia, still lives in Cairo. But given the situation, Shohdy won't be able to visit her there for many years.

"Until recently a sentence passed in a misdemeanor case like mine would have been dropped after five years, but now the law has been tailored to prolong the validity of any sentence to up to 30 years," Shohdy said. "This news made me laugh," he joked bitterly, "because in 2032, Naguib Surur's centenary will be celebrated, and I have no doubt that a monument will be inaugurated in Cairo."

Those who know Shohdy have joked about a phrase commonly used under the Soviet regime when someone emigrated from Russia: "He chose freedom."

For his part, Shohdy chooses freedom by remaining in Russia.

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More stories written by Sergey Kuznetsov