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Egyptian Blogger Imprisoned for Four Years for Insulting President

An Iraqi blogger was sentenced to four years imprisonment for insulting Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. This has been the first trial of an Egyptian blogger. Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former law student, denied the charges. Human right groups have been lobbying he be freed. Nabil, who published his blog under the pen name Karim Amar, was extremely critical of the university he formerly attended, calling it a "terrorism university." He was throne out of the university last year and since then the university has been pushing for his prosecution. Nabil also often criticized the Egyptian government.

The judge announced the sentence in courthouse in Alexandria, in a short hearing of five minutes. He sentenced Nabil to three years imprisonment for insulting Islam and incitement, and an additional year for insulting president Mubarak. Nabil was facing a maximum sentence of 9 years imprisonment.

Last year, several bloggers were arrested across Egypt, most of them on charges of affiliation with the pro-democratic reform movement. Nabil was arrested in November, but while the rest of the bloggers were freed, he was prosecuted. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based press freedom organization released a statement saying the sentence was "a disgrace" and calling the United Nations to respond by disqualifying Egypt from hosting an Internet Governance Forum in 2009. "It is time the international community took a stand on Egypt`s repeated violations of press freedom and the rights of Internet users," the statement added.