[kictanet] Blogger jailed for 'insulting' Islam

Fri Feb 23 15:35:27 EAT 2007

Colleagues,

An 'interesting' story here about an Egyptian blogger who has been 
jailed. Raises those nagging questions about just where we should stop 
as journalists in the exercise of our freedoms, and when authorities 
need to control what they term 'harmful' writings. But perhaps this 
should be of particular concern given that this wasn't a mainstream but 
an online missive by a blogger, which represents a growing interest by 
the state in what people do in what bloggers otherwise consider their 
private spaces in which they would want to freely express themselves 
with as minimal interference from authorities as possible.

Wakabi
=====

Blogger jailed for 'insulting' Islam

Fri, 23 Feb 2007
An Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four years in jail on Thursday for 
insulting Islam and defaming President Hosni Mubarak, triggering 
condemnation from international human rights groups.

A court in the Mediterranean costal city of Alexandria sentenced Abdel 
Karim Suleiman to three years for insulting Islam and to one year for 
defaming the president.

This was the first time a blogger has been sentenced in Egypt for 
writings published on the Internet.

Suleiman has been in custody since November 2006 and his trial started 
on 25 January. He denied all the charges.

The 22-year-old blogger, also known by his pen name Karim Amer, was 
arrested after posting an entry on his blog lashing out at Cairo's 
Al-Azhar University — the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam.

"I say to Al-Azhar and its university and its professors and preachers 
who stand against anyone who thinks differently to them: 'You are 
destined for the rubbish bin of history, where you will find no one to 
cry for you, and your regime will end like others have," he wrote.

Despite worldwide appeals for his release, the court ruled that the 
young Muslim blogger should be jailed for posting a string of writings 
insulting Islam.

"The Moharram Beik criminal court has sentenced the blogger after he 
created a website through which he attacked Islam," Judge Ayman Okkaz said.

"On his site, he claimed that Islam incited terrorism, hatred and murder."

The conviction was based on a series of vaguely worded articles in the 
penal code that forbid the spreading of false information, insulting 
Islam or other revealed religions, and "affronting the President of the 
Republic."

Fellow blogger and rights activist Dalia Ziyada told AFP that Suleiman's 
defence team would lodge an appeal on Saturday.

Crackdown on political bloggers

Egypt recently launched a crackdown on political bloggers, who rose to 
prominence by challenging Mubarak's regime during the 2005 elections and 
more recently by highlighting cases of police brutality.

Amnesty International lambasted the Egyptian judiciary for its 
unprecedented sanction against a blogger.

"This sentence is yet another slap in the face of freedom of expression 
in Egypt," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's Middle East and North 
Africa Deputy Programme Director, in a statement.

"The Egyptian authorities must protect the peaceful exercise of freedom 
of expression, even if the views expressed might be perceived by some as 
offensive," she said, adding that Amnesty now considers Suleiman a 
prisoner of conscience.

Sentence is a 'disgrace'

The press freedom organisation Reporters without Borders called the 
sentence a "disgrace," noting that it would have a chilling effect on 
Egypt's vibrant blogging scene.

"Suleiman's conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the 
rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as 
an effective bulwark against the regime's authoritarian excesses," a 
statement said.

The sentiment was echoed by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which 
saw the sentence as "a chilling precedent in a country where blogs have 
opened a window for free speech," said Middle East directior Sarah Lee 
Whitson.

RSF also called on the United Nations to reject Egypt's request to host 
the 'Internet Governance Forum' in 2009.

AFP

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