Egyptian blogger jailed for insulting Islam
An Egyptian appeals court has upheld a four-year jail sentence against 22-year-old blogger, Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, who was convicted of insulting Islam and the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.
Amer used his blog to regularly criticise perceived religious and authoritarian excesses of the Egyptian government and of the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, one of Egypt's highest religious institutions. He studied law at Al-Azhar University before being expelled for criticising the conservative instructors.
Human rights group Amnesty International slammed the ruling as "yet another slap in the face of freedom for expression in Egypt".
In 2006 Egypt arrested a number of bloggers who had been critical of the government, however all were subsequently freed.
