<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><br><div> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div>Colleagues,<br><br>An 'interesting' story here about an Egyptian blogger who has been <br>jailed. Raises those nagging questions about just where we should stop <br>as journalists in the exercise of our freedoms, and when authorities <br>need to control what they term 'harmful' writings. But perhaps this <br>should be of particular concern given that this wasn't a mainstream but <br>an online missive by a blogger, which represents a growing interest by <br>the state in what people do in what bloggers otherwise consider their <br>private spaces in which they would want to freely express themselves <br>with as minimal interference
from authorities as possible.<br><br>Wakabi<br>=====<br><br>Blogger jailed for 'insulting' Islam<br><br>Fri, 23 Feb 2007<br>An Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four years in jail on Thursday for <br>insulting Islam and defaming President Hosni Mubarak, triggering <br>condemnation from international human rights groups.<br><br>A court in the Mediterranean costal city of Alexandria sentenced Abdel <br>Karim Suleiman to three years for insulting Islam and to one year for <br>defaming the president.<br><br>This was the first time a blogger has been sentenced in Egypt for <br>writings published on the Internet.<br><br>Suleiman has been in custody since November 2006 and his trial started <br>on 25 January. He denied all the charges.<br><br>The 22-year-old blogger, also known by his pen name Karim Amer, was <br>arrested after posting an entry on his blog lashing out at Cairo's <br>Al-Azhar University — the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam.<br><br>"I say to Al-Azhar and
its university and its professors and preachers <br>who stand against anyone who thinks differently to them: 'You are <br>destined for the rubbish bin of history, where you will find no one to <br>cry for you, and your regime will end like others have," he wrote.<br><br>Despite worldwide appeals for his release, the court ruled that the <br>young Muslim blogger should be jailed for posting a string of writings <br>insulting Islam.<br><br>"The Moharram Beik criminal court has sentenced the blogger after he <br>created a website through which he attacked Islam," Judge Ayman Okkaz said.<br><br>"On his site, he claimed that Islam incited terrorism, hatred and murder."<br><br>The conviction was based on a series of vaguely worded articles in the <br>penal code that forbid the spreading of false information, insulting <br>Islam or other revealed religions, and "affronting the President of the <br>Republic."<br><br>Fellow blogger and rights activist Dalia Ziyada told AFP that
Suleiman's <br>defence team would lodge an appeal on Saturday.<br><br>Crackdown on political bloggers<br><br>Egypt recently launched a crackdown on political bloggers, who rose to <br>prominence by challenging Mubarak's regime during the 2005 elections and <br>more recently by highlighting cases of police brutality.<br><br>Amnesty International lambasted the Egyptian judiciary for its <br>unprecedented sanction against a blogger.<br><br>"This sentence is yet another slap in the face of freedom of expression <br>in Egypt," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's Middle East and North <br>Africa Deputy Programme Director, in a statement.<br><br>"The Egyptian authorities must protect the peaceful exercise of freedom <br>of expression, even if the views expressed might be perceived by some as <br>offensive," she said, adding that Amnesty now considers Suleiman a <br>prisoner of conscience.<br><br>Sentence is a 'disgrace'<br><br>The press freedom organisation Reporters without
Borders called the <br>sentence a "disgrace," noting that it would have a chilling effect on <br>Egypt's vibrant blogging scene.<br><br>"Suleiman's conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the <br>rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as <br>an effective bulwark against the regime's authoritarian excesses," a <br>statement said.<br><br>The sentiment was echoed by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which <br>saw the sentence as "a chilling precedent in a country where blogs have <br>opened a window for free speech," said Middle East directior Sarah Lee <br>Whitson.<br><br>RSF also called on the United Nations to reject Egypt's request to host <br>the 'Internet Governance Forum' in 2009.<br><br>AFP<br><br><br>visit our website at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.penplusbytes.net">www.penplusbytes.net</a> <br>our blog is located at <a target="_blank"
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