Al-Musharaka Blog

Egyptian authorities have just released a student who was arrested while working as a translator for an American graduate student photographing demonstrations, in part due to the efforts of a network of cyber activists, CNN reports.

When Karl Buck, a graduate student from University of California at Berkeley, and his Egyptian translator Mohammed Maree, a 23-year-old veterinary student, were arrested while photographing anti-government protests over low wages and rising food prices in April, Buck sent a one word posting from his cell phone to the microblog service Twitter alerting his family and friends. His school hired an attorney and he was released immediately. Maree, however, remained in detention.

Buck returned home and used his Twitter network, now more than 570 followers strong, to help free his translator and friend.

Fueled by the gnawing guilt of leaving Maree behind, Buck set out to enlist all the help he could in hopes of sparking a movement for the translator's release.

He began setting up a virtual online command post to demand Maree's release. He contacted U.S. and Egyptian authorities and human rights groups and used everything from Twitter updates, blog posts on his Web site to an electronic petition signed by more than 900 people.

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