Posted on 04/11/2011 11:49:32 AM PDT by Palter
An Egyptian blogger was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for criticizing the military in what human rights advocates called one of the more alarming violations of freedom of expression since a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak two months ago.
The blogger, Maikel Nabil, 26, had assailed the Egyptian armed forces for what he called its continuation of the corruption and anti-democratic practices of Mr. Mubarak. Mr. Nabil often quoted from reports by established human rights groups.
“Maikel is the first prisoner of conscience in Egypt after the revolution,” Adel Ramadan, one of his lawyers, said in a telephone interview. “This ruling is a warning to all journalists, bloggers and human rights activists in Egypt that the punishment for criticizing the army is a sentence in a military prison.”
Mr. Ramadan said that a military tribunal had sentenced Mr. Nabil to serve his term in Tora Prison here. His lawyers and his family were barred from communicating with him after the sentencing.
The charges against Mr. Nabil included insulting the military establishment and spreading false information about the armed forces. The tribunal charged him with spreading information previously published by human rights organizations like Amnesty International on the army’s use of violence against protesters, the torture of those detained inside the Egyptian Museum and the use of forced pelvic exams, known as “virginity tests,” against detained female protesters.
The main evidence against Mr. Nabil, who blogged under the name “Son of Ra,” was a CD containing 73 screen shots of entries on his blog and his personal Facebook page, according to Heba Morayef, a researcher in Egypt for Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York.
Human Rights Watch had been calling for Mr. Nabil’s release for days.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wow, thank goodness they had a democratic revolution there in January, or that guy would really be in trouble. I know because CNN told me so!!
What do they do for unecessary excerpting? Cut off a hand?
How’s that “democracy” working out for you?
Viva la revolucion!!
Hey, if they thought the frying pan was hot, wait ‘till they get a jolt of the fire!
It's a start!
Nice going, barry.
Of course, islamazation is what he seeks.
The system has not changed one iota in Egypt. The Nasserite military government continues unchanged since 1953. The only thing that changed is which generals sit in which chairs.
Yep, no revolution, it was a protest turned military coup to head off Mubarak’s planned monarchy.
He should have served. It never hurts to be trained in weapons handling.
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