Egyptian court rejects blogger's appeal

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian appeals court on Monday upheld a 4-year jail sentence against a blogger convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak.

Abdel-Karim Suleiman, 22, last month became the first Egyptian to be jailed for his writing on the Internet in what human rights groups and bloggers described as a dangerous precedent that could limit online freedom in the country.

"This was not a verdict issued on a legal basis," said Gamal Eid, a human rights activist and one of Suleiman's lawyers.

"This is a religious verdict similar to those of the Inquisition," he told Reuters.

The court in the port city of Alexandria also allowed a group of Islamist lawyers to file a separate lawsuit against Suleiman demanding compensation on the grounds that his writings had harmed them as Muslims.

A photographer working with Reuters said the Islamist lawyers criticised Suleiman's lawyers during the proceedings for defending him.

"You are an infidel," one of the Islamist lawyers shouted at a member of Suleiman's defence team after the trial, sparking a shouting match between the groups.

The case against Suleiman, a secular-minded Muslim who uses the name Kareem Amer on his blog (karam903.blogspot.com), was based on a complaint by al-Azhar University about eight articles written since 2004.

Suleiman accused the conservative Sunni institution of promoting extremist thought and described some companions of the Prophet Mohammad as "terrorists". He also compared President Hosni Mubarak to the dictatorial Pharaohs of ancient Egypt.