Karim Amer's Sentence Upheld

The Alexandria Appeals Court affirmed today the 4 years imprisonment of Egyptian blogger, Abdel Kareem Suliman Amer, passed by the first degree court for insulting Islam and the president of Egypt.

The result was not unexpected. The Mubarak government is imperious to much of the international outrage, and unfortunately despite the strong protests of Egyptian human rights activists, there is also a backlash against Amer in the country because of his unpopular views on religion. That's important because the internal pressure has been very important in making the Mubarak government act, and again despite strong statement from many activists, in bulk, the government certainly doesn't seem threatened by it and in fact it probably is using this case as one of its periodic efforts to shore up its credentials with the religious community.

Here's a link to a full report from an Egyptian human rights network.