[kictanet] Blogger jailed for 'insulting' Islam

Sat Feb 24 09:47:55 EAT 2007

I think that this should fall under the 'cyber crime space' in the
Policy,baring in mind that its not only the journalists who are
bloggers.......anyone can do a blog! Insult suparsess,freedom!

Just a thought.

Kind Regards,

On 2/23/07, Rebecca Wanjiku <rebeccawanjiku at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> 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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