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Blogger jailed for Islam and president insults
Metro Thursday, February 22, 2007
A court has convicted a blogger in Eygpt for insulting both Islam and the country's president Hosni Mubarak.
The court in the city of Alexandria sentenced Abdel Karim Suleiman to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet.
The 22-year-old former law student, who has been in custody since November, was the first blogger to stand trial in Egypt for his Internet writings.
He was convicted in connection with eight articles he wrote since 2004.
One of Suleiman's articles said that al-Azhar in Cairo, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, was promoting extreme ideas.
Another article, headlined "The Naked Truth of Islam as I Saw it", accused Muslims of savagery during clashes between Muslims and Christians in Alexandria in 2005.
He has also described some of the companions of the Muslim prophet Mohammad as "terrorists", and has likened Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.
Suleiman, who describes himself as a Muslim and a liberal, has not denied writing the articles but said they merely represented his own views.