Egypt: FOUR Years Prison Sentence for Blogger
Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabil Sulaiman made history today by being the first Egyptian to be sentenced to jail for articles he wrote on his personal blog.
An Alexandria court found him guilty of insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail based on his writings on the Internet, according to media reports.
A blog set up by supporters just announced the following:
Dalia Ziada, a human rights activist and blogger, informs us that Kareem is sentenced to FOUR years in prison: three years for contempt to religion, and one year for defaming the president.
His appeal will be launched on Saturday by his lawyers, but we are told that it won’t do much. Hopefully it will shorten the sentence.
This is bad news for all of us, and we’d just like you all to know that this fight for his freedom will still continue until he is freed.
Global Voices had earlier covered Sulaiman's ordeal here, here and here.
Charges cited against Sulaiman, who has been in detention since early November awaiting trial, included: incitement to hate Islam, spreading malicious rumours that disrupt public security and defaming the Egyptian President.
Fellow blogger and Bahraini activist Esra'a was lost for words when she heard about her friend's fate.
“My friend Kareem has been sentenced to 4 years in prison. 3 years for his stance against Islam and 1 year for ‘defaming the President.’
I have nothing further to say. I don’t know whether to cry or to kick something in anger….He really doesn’t deserve this,” she writes in anguish.
Stay tuned.. more reactions to come…
23 comments
Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabil Sulaiman made history today by being the first Egyptian to be sentenced to jail for keeping a blog.
The language you are using is misleading and sadly sensationalistic (par for the course for the Egyptian bloging community).
The sentence clearly indicates that his jail sentence is directly due to his keeping a blog. This is false. It is the content, and not the medium.
And no, changing the wording doesn’t make things better. This has nothing to do with blogging and everything to do with freedom of speech.
Stop it already with the sensationalistic shrieks for attention.
Dear Mr Assad, Thanks for drawing my attention to an omission on my part. I fully understand the point you are making. The sentence should have read: Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabil Sulaiman made history today by being the first Egyptian to be sentenced to jail for articles he wrote on a blog. I am correcting it now.
If I were in charge in America, I would throw sanctions on Egypt for Human rights abuses. Let the dictators strave like junkyard dogs they are! Kiss this Mubarak.
What a story! it is horrible to think that things like this are happening right now. Thank you Amira for covering the news.
Thanks Melissa :) It sure is a horrible price to pay for speaking your mind. Sigh!
Dear Amina,
thanks for your work (either paid or not is excellent, honest, PROGRESSIVE work).
At present my blogsite, at his 3rd version, created by me only two days ago, is still in Italian only, my native language.
As soon as possible, when I’m over with a decent and complete structure, and some other meaningful postings – WordPress allows a good managing of pages too, not only posts – I’ll find sectors and ways to deeply collaborate also at a distance in the PROGREESIVE economic, political and language and culture (soft economy) fields.
Shukran, salam aleykoum (‘Grazie e arrivederci’ in Italian).
i guess that such things as freedom of speech and expression are only written on paper and not regarded in place like egypt.u shud be able to express ur opinions on matters that concern u whether religous or political.It’s all just intimidation on the part of the govt of egypt.thats all folks
Amina,
Thank you for bringing up what happended to Kareem. All our thoughts are with him in hope that he will be freed soon.