Blogger jailed in Egypt

Egyptian blogger jailed for insulting Islam and president

(The Daily Telegraph – London)

[It turns out The telegraph got it wrong. Sandmonkey is still blogging. A year ago he wrote Help us Free Alaa. That’s probably who was jailed.]

An Egyptian who enraged his government with outspoken views on Islam and politics expressed in his internet diary was jailed yesterday amid an international outcry. The 22-year-old former law student, whose own father has disowned him and called for his execution under Islamic law, was sentenced to four years by a court in Alexandria . The convictions resulting from the views published on his weblog, Sandmonkey, included counts for “spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country’s reputation”; “incitement to hate Islam” and “defaming the President of the Republic”. Abdelkareem Suleiman was also found guilty of criticising Al-Azhar University . He was expelled from the university last March after writing in his blog that the “professors and sheikhs at Al-Azhar who stand against anyone who thinks freely” would “end up in the dustbin of history”.