UPDATE: Egyptian blogger, 'Kareem Amer', sentenced to a 4 year jail term

Another strike against free speech, and one more example of Islamic justice at its finest. A while back I wrote a short post about an Egyptian blogger who had been jailed for writing a blog critical of President Hosni Mubarak and Islam. Well, the verdict is in. According to Reporters Without Borders, Egyptian courts sentenced the young blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman (also spelled Soliman and aka Kareem Amer, his blog name) to 4 years in jail! Three for "inciting hatred of Islam" and one for being critical of Mubarak.

Reporters Sans Frontieres slammed the Egyptian government calling the sentence “... a disgrace,” adding that it was "Almost three years ago to the day, President Mubarak promised to abolish prison sentences for press offences. Suleiman’s conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as an effective bulwark against the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”

Promises mean nothing in repressive societies. Never have, never will. There is far too much at stake for those in power.

So, once again, censorship in its most hideous form, rears its ugly head.