Egyptian Bedouin blogger held since 2007 freed in a bid to ease tension with Sinai community

CAIRO – CAIRO (AP) — The Egyptian government on Tuesday released a Bedouin activist and blogger after three years of imprisonment as part of an effort to ease tensions in the Sinai Peninsula, the detainee and his lawyer said.

Authorities detained Mosaad Suleiman Abu Fagr, 41, in December 2007 and accused him of inciting Bedouins to protest against government discrimination. He was held under emergency law despite 20 court rulings to release him, said his lawyer Ahmed Ragheb.

Abu Fagr said his release comes as the government is attempting to placate the restive Bedouin community following a violent standoff in the Sinai.

"The government is trying to exonerate itself by releasing me," Abu Fagr said. "The situation is really bad in Sinai. It is very critical and the government has finally come to realize that after a group of its own citizens took up arms against it for the first time."

The Bedouin tribes of the Sinai have always had uneasy relations with the government and complain of underdevelopment and discrimination. Authorities, meanwhile, accuse them of being instrumental in the lucrative smuggling trade between Egypt, Gaza and Israel that involves everything from people to drugs to weapons.

Relations hit rock bottom, however, five years ago when authorities rounded up hundreds of them following bomb attacks at Sinai resorts.

Clashes have intensified in recent weeks in central Sinai and tribesmen attacked a humanitarian convoy bound for Gaza and tried to blow up a natural gas pipeline close to Egypt-Israeli border.

There was also an armed standoff with a group of fugitive Bedouin who took refuge near the Israeli border. Their main demand has been the release of detainees.

Interior Minister Gen. Habib el-Adly met Bedouin elders last month and promised to release detainees as a measure to ease tensions and so far over 50 Bedouins, including Abu Fagr, have been freed though an estimated 400 remain in custody.

Abu Fagr wrote a blog called "We want to live" that called for political rights and economic development for Bedouins.