Blogger has jail sentence upheld for insulting Islam
Monday, 12 March 2007
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The Egyptian Appeal Court today upheld the four-year prison sentence given to a blogger who had been convicted of insulting Islam and Egypt's president, court officials said.
The sentence imposed on Abdel Kareem Nabil, 22, last month had been widely condemned by local and international rights groups as a bid to curb free expression.
Nabil, a former student at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, had been sentenced by a court in Alexandria to three years in prison for insulting Islam, the Prophet Mohammed and inciting sectarian strife, and another year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak.
Nabil, who used the blogger name Kareem Amer, was an unusually scathing critic of conservative Muslims. His frequent attacks on Al-Azhar led the university to expel him in March 2006 and caused prosecutors to bring him to trial.
Court officials today said the Appeal Court in Alexandria upheld the earlier sentence.
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