At the International Herald Tribune: Egyptian blogger’s lawyers appeal his 4 years prison sentence (hat tip: Renée).

Important note: The appeal can only decrease Kareem Amer’s sentence term. Even if he wins the appeal, he will not be immediately released.

Egyptian blogger’s lawyers appeal his 4 years prison sentence

The Associated Press
Published: February 26, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt: Lawyers for an Egyptian blogger convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egypt’s president filed an appeal Monday.

Abdel Kareem Nabil, a former student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, had been a vocal secularist and sharp critic of conservative Muslims in his blog. He often lashed out at Al-Azhar — the most prominent religious center in Sunni Islam — calling it “the university of terrorism” and accusing it of encouraging extremism.

One of Nabil’s lawyers Rawda Ahmed said an appeal was filed Monday and a court hearing was set for March 12.

A criminal court in Alexandria, Nabil’s hometown, has issued its four year’s verdict on Thursday. The conviction has brought a flood of condemnations from international and Egyptian human rights groups, as well as from fellow bloggers [Thank you —ed.]. Washington also has said it was concerned about the verdict and sentence.

But Egyptian authorities have staunchly defended the court’s decision.

“No one, no matter who he might be, has the right to interfere with Egyptian legal matters or comments on Egypt’s decisions,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement on Friday.

Judge Ayman al-Akazi sentenced Nabil, 22, to three years in prison for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and inciting sectarian strife and another year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak.

Nabil, who has called himself a secular Muslim, did not react as the verdict was read. His religious family didn’t attend any of the trial sessions.

Egypt, a top U.S. ally in the Mideast, arrested a number of bloggers last year, most of them for connections to the pro-democracy reform movement. Nabil was put on trial while other bloggers were freed — a sign of the sensitivity of his writings on religion.

Nabil, who used the blogger name Kareem Amer, was an unusually scathing critic of conservative Muslims. His frequent attacks on Al-Azhar, where he was a law student, led the university to expel him in March, then push prosecutors to bring him to trial.