Kareem Amer, the Egyptian blogger who has been detained since November for opinions he expressed on his blog, has just been sentenced to FOUR years in prison: three years for contempt of religion, and one year for defaming the Egyptian president (via Johan Norberg, who only yesterday spoke at a rally in solidarity with Kareem in front of the Egyptian embassy in Stockholm).
Kareem Amer, the online pseudonym for former law student Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, who had argued for secularism, free speech and women's rights, is the first Egyptian to be put on trial for Internet-based journalism, and, as such, today's verdict may set a frightening precedent. For one, it's a sharp reminder that dictatorships are catching up with Web 2.0...
Update 20:42: Here's Kareem's blog, translated by Google, a bit more on the statements he was condemned for here.
Swedish blogggers and others protesting
against Kareem's trial and for freedom of speech
(photo via Fredrik Malm's blog)
This is a losing battle by repressive governments. Activists will find a way to get their message out, no matter what. Although there is technology to find the dissidents, better technology exists to hide one's tracks.
Posted by: Krishna Kumar | February 22, 2007 at 04:48 PM
I want to blog about this: I followed the links you gave looking for posts of his that might have been translated into English or are in English, but I couldn't find any. Any help you could give on that matter would be appreciated.
Posted by: ashok | February 22, 2007 at 07:13 PM
Krishna: I do hope you're right.
Ashok: see the updates on the blog post
Posted by: Kristine | February 22, 2007 at 08:51 PM
Yeah, I found something helpful here, too:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022200269_2.html
I'm trying to get a friend that knows Arabic to find and translate one of his posts.
Posted by: ashok | February 23, 2007 at 11:03 AM