Reporters Sans Frontières

Published on 12 March 2007

The four-year prison sentence imposed on 22 February on blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman for “inciting hatred of Islam” and insulting President Hosni Mubarak was confirmed on an appeal today in Alexandria, 24 hours after an Alexandria judge brought a complaint accusing 21 websites of attacking Mubarak.

“All of Egypt’s Internet users are being targeted through Suleiman,” the press freedom organisation said. “A threat is now hanging over their heads. We fear that other arrests and website closures could soon take place as the authorities seem to have decided to bring Internet users into line.”

During today’s appeal hearing, the presiding judge ruled that the courts could accept complaints brought by individual lawyers demanding reparations from Suleiman for “insulting” Islam in his blog, for which he used the pseudonym “Kareem Amer.” He said Suleiman would appear soon before a civil court, which could order him to pay damages to lawyers who had brought complaints. For more information

Meanwhile, Alexandria appeal court president Abdel Fattah Murad yesterday brought a complaint against the Egyptian government, demanding the closure of 21 websites that “attack the President of the Republic.” Local sources told Reporters Without Borders that the website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the very popular blogs Baheyya and Gharbeia were among the sites concerned.

Egypt is one of the countries which Reporters Without Borders has identified as Internet Enemies. Nonetheless, it has been asked by the United Nations to host an Internet Governance Forum in 2009.

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