Shortly after Kareem was sentenced to prison on February 22, the Foreign Minister of Egypt told the world he doesn’t care about the global outrage caused by chasing a harmless blogger: القاهرة تستنكر ردود الأفعال على الحكم بسجن مدون. (Hat tip: Ahmed)

We’ve translated the Arabic Al-Jazeera article:

Cairo Condemns Reactions to Sentencing Blogger to Prison

PHOTO: Ahmed Abul-Gheit considers criticism of Abdul Kareem Suleiman’s sentence as interference in the judiciary system.

Egypt strongly criticized the reactions to condemning an Egyptian blogger, who owns a Web site, on charges of attacking Islam and President Hosni Mubarak, and to imprisoning him for four years.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit issued a statement rejecting the intervention of anyone, “whoever he may be”, in the work of the Egyptian judiciary, or anyone commenting on its provisions.

Abul-Gheit also said that Egypt rejects the positions of “some media outlets and non-governmental organizations abroad”, expressing Egypt’s “strong displeasure and dismay” for that.

A court in Alexandria, in northern Egypt, sentenced Abdul Kareem Suleiman to four years in prison under the charges of contempt of the Islamic religion and insulting President Mubarak.

The Moharram Bek Misdemeanor Court sentenced the defendant to three years in prison under the charge of contempt of Islam, and one year under the charge of insulting the President. Suleiman was a student at Al-Azhar University, which expelled him last year and demanded having him tried. He is the first Egyptian blogger to be issued a prison sentence.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said he is “very concerned” about the prison sentence that was imposed on blogger Abdul Kareem Suleiman for expressing his opinions. In addition, foreign human rights organizations, as well as Egyptian organizations, such as the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, have denounced the sentence.

Eight Articles

Suleiman wrote his articles under the pen name Kareem Amer. He was tried because of eight articles that he published on his blog, in which he strongly criticized Al-Azhar University, which he described as a “university of terrorism and spreading extremist ideas”.

Furthermore, in one of these articles, he strongly criticized Mubarak, equating him with “pharaonic dictators”. In another article entitled “The Naked Truth of Islam as I Saw It”, Suleiman talked about the sectarian confrontations that occurred in Alexandria in 2005, accusing it of inciting sedition and tarnishing the image of Muslims.

Held since last November, Suleiman did not deny writing these articles, but he said that they only reflected his personal opinions. The defense team asserted that he would appeal against the sentence, describing the trial as unjust.

Mr. Abul-Gheit is wondering why the outside world seems to be so concerned about the judicial branch of sovereign Egypt.

Albeit being anachronistic, an eloquent response was written by Kareem Amer himself, shortly before his arrest:

I hereby declare, in all frankness and clarity, my rejection and repudiation of any law, any legislation, and any regime that does not respect the individual’s rights and personal freedom, and does not acknowledge the absolute freedom of the individual in doing anything – as long as he does not affect anyone around him in a physical way –, and does not acknowledge the individuals’ absolute freedom in expressing their opinions, whatever they may be and whatever they cover, as long as this opinion is merely an opinion or words coming from a person, and is not coupled with any physical action that harms others. At the same time, I declare, in all clarity, that such laws do not obligate me in any way, and I do not acknowledge them or their existence. I detest, from the depths of my soul, whoever works on implementing them, whoever uses them as a guide, and whoever is satisfied with their existence or benefits from them. And if these laws are forced upon us, and we have no power or strength in changing them because that is in the hands of those in power with agendas, who are more than satisfied for the existence of such laws and are making use of it: Nevertheless, all of this will not push me into submission, or into waiting for relief and appeasement.

I hereby declare that I do not acknowledge the legitimacy of my summons to investigate a matter like this, which is within the realm of my freedom to express my opinions. This freedom was stipulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Egypt has supposedly signed. Moreover, setting this declaration aside, and even if it did not exist, and even if Egypt did not sign it, human rights are very self-evident matters that do not require legislations or laws to regulate them or to define their essence.

UPDATE: (April 11, 2007)
An Italian translation of the article is now available here!

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