You are in:
- Archives » 2007 » February 2007
Egyptian Blogger Jailed
Blogger gets four years for "insulting Islam and President" - own father calls for his execution
Alexandria , Egypt: 22 year old Abdel Kareem Soliman was today sentenced to four years in prison for criticising the nation's leading Islamic academic institution, al-Azhar university, and for describing president President Hosni Mubarak as a dictator.
Soliman, a former student at the university, described it as "the university of terrorism" and said that it "suppressed free thought."
He was expelled from the school last year; al-Azhar's principals demanded that he be tried - perhaps not the best way of demonstrating that you do not suppress free thought.
The court session, the BBC reports, lasted all of five minutes, during which Soliman was told by the judge he was guilty and was handed three years for "apostasy" and another one for insulting Mubarak.
Please note that the BBC does not explore the circumstances of Soliman's sentencing any further.
According to blogger Francis Sedgemore, Egyptian Islamists had called for Soliman's execution. His family is reported to have disowned him for "imitating the atheists of the West" while his father, a retired mathematics teacher, has called for him to be killed if he does not repent.
In a blog post, Soliman criticised fanatics for attacking and looting Christian businesses while chanting Islamist slogans. He said that the behaviour of the extremists made it necessary to question fearlessly what in the teachings of Islam indulged such behaviour.
Soliman is the most prominent blogger to be arrested and prosecuted by the authorities in Egypt; others have subsequently been freed, but the harsh sentence handed to Soliman will serve as warning to other bloggers.
From Harry's Place has more information, plus a link to the Pub Philosopher who republishes one of the articles that landed Soliman in prison.
Reporters Sans Frontieres on Kareem
