Join "Free Kareem Campaign"

A court in the port city of Alexandria has sentenced a young Egyptian blogger to four years' jail for contempt of religion, insulting the president and spreading false information.

Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman, 22, is the first Egyptian blogger to stand trial for views expressed on the internet.

The case against him was based on a complaint from al-Azhar University, where he studied law until he was expelled last year because of his critical writings about religion.

Mr Nabil had declared himself a secularist who does not fast during Ramadan and he criticised al-Azhar, the most prestigious institution of religious learning in the Sunni Muslim world.

He accused it of spreading radical ideas and suppressing freedom of thought.

Campaign

Mr Soliman's arrest in November provoked an outcry from the blogging community inside Egypt and internationally.

A "Free Kareem" campaign
- using his blogging name Kareem Amer - was launched and human rights
groups say he is a prisoner of conscience, held only for his opinions.

Many activists now consider that the outcome of Mr
Soliman's trial is an indication of the shape of things to come for
Egypt's small but increasingly outspoken online community.

In this country of 80 million people, there are some 6,000 active bloggers.

Only a tiny fraction of them deal with political and human rights issues.

But in the last two years, these bloggers have had an impact on the political debate which far surpasses their number.