The Land of the "Not So Free!"

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — An Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt’s first prosecution of a blogger.

Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, (An Islamic institution that kicked him out for exercising his "adademic freedom.") had pleaded innocent to all charges.

Human rights groups had called for his release.

The judge issued the verdict in a brief, five-minute session in a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. He sentenced Nabil to three years in prison for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and another year for insulting Mubarak.

(It's a good thing you can't be punished in the States for insulting Bush, eh............... at least, not so far!)

Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of up to nine years in prison, which goes to show the state of "freedom of speech" in that part of the world!

Your "refuse to be silenced" scribe;
Allan W Janssen