This is frightening. Even in George Bush's America, I remain thankful for the freedoms we do have:
An Egyptian appeals court on Monday confirmed a four-year jail sentence against a blogger convicted of insulting religion and defaming the president, his lawyer said.
The court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria rejected the appeal by 22-year-old Abdel-Karim Suleiman who was sentenced last month, lawyer Gamal Eid told AFP.
"The verdict was not handed down on the basis of the law," said Eid, who is also the head of Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. "It is a religious verdict similar to those of the Inquisition."
Suleiman, who blogs under the name Karim Amer, was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting religion and a year for defaming President Hosni Mubarak after posting an entry on his blog lashing out at Cairo's Al-Azhar University - Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning.
"I say to Al-Azhar and its university and its professors and preachers who stand against anyone who thinks differently to them: 'You are destined for the rubbish bin of history, where you will find no one to cry for you, and your regime will end like others have," he wrote.
That's all it took for a three year sentence. You can read the whole article here.
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