Egyptian blogger jailed for four years for insulting Islam and President

An Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four years in jail yesterday for articles published on his website.

Abdel Kareem Soliman, 22, a former law student from Alexandria who used the internet alias Kareem Amer, was convicted of inciting hatred of Islam and insulting the President, Hosni Mubarak.

The harsh sentence marked the first time that an Egyptian blogger has been formally prosecuted for an opinion published online. Gamal Eid, part of Soliman's defence team, said: "This is a dark day for all who are interested in freedom of expression and belief in Egypt.

"Four years is too much, we were expecting no more than one year. He is just a student, and hasn't committed any crime - he has just published his opinion."

Soliman was arrested last November, following a complaint by al-Azhar University, his former place of study and Sunni Islam's most important institution. He had referred in his blog to companions of the Prophet Mohamed as "terrorists", to al-Azhar as "the university of terrorism" and to President Mubarak as the "symbol of dictatorship".

Bloggers have recently formed an important part of the Egyptian pro-democracy movement, publishing calls for reform and exposing human rights abuses.

Amnesty International said the conviction was a "slap in the face for freedom of expression" and added that the internet was the "new front in the battle between those who want to speak out and those who would stop them".

While the Egyptian government refused to comment on the case, Soliman's provocative writing won him few sympathisers in Egypt's mostly conservative, Muslim society. Many believe that he went too far and the case has brought to the fore a debate about the limits of free speech in a predominantly religious society.

A lawyer, who attended the court, said: "I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence... There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence."

However, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman said: "Although I do not approve at all of what he said about Islam, I believe the real reason for the sentence was that he attacked the government."

Soliman's lawyers are preparing his appeal.