CAIRO: Egypt on Friday lashed out at critics of the four-year jail sentence it handed a blogger Abdel Kareem Soliman Amer for insulting Islam and defaming President Hosni Mubarak.
No one has the right to interfere with Egyptian legal matters or comment on Egypt s decisions, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement.
Egypt rejects the reactions of certain foreign media and non-governmental organizations, he added, citing his indignation and disapproval.
A court in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on Thursday sentenced Amer 22, to three years for insulting Islam and to one year for defaming the president.
It marked the first time a blogger was sentenced in Egypt for writings published on the Internet and triggered condemnation from international human rights groups.
The blogger, also known by his pen name Karim Amer, was arrested after posting an entry on his blog lashing out at Cairo s Al-Azhar University – the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam.
Amnesty International lambasted the Egyptian judiciary for its unprecedented sanction against a blogger, calling it yet another slap in the face of freedom of expression in Egypt.
The press freedom organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) called the sentence a disgrace.
The sentiment was echoed by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which saw the sentence as a chilling precedent in a country where blogs have opened a window for free speech.
