More details have emerged about the case of Ahmed Mustafa, the young Egyptian blogger hauled up before a military court for "tarnishing the image" of the armed forces.

His "offence" occurred more than a year ago when he wrote in his Arabic-language blog about someone being removed from a military college so that a rich kid could take his place. 

However, he was not arrested until last week (on the orders of Egypt's military prosecutor). Al-Masry al-Youm says the prosecutors appointed state lawyers to defend him but did not notify his family of his arrest. His trial began at a military tribunal yesterday.

He is being tried under the Military Courts Law which is supposedly intended to deal with cases of terrorism and other threats to national security.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 1 March 2010.

UPDATE, 2 March: Human Rights Watch issued a 
statement calling for all charges to be dropped. The Committee to Protect Journalists has also taken up the case. The next court hearing is scheduled for 7 March.