This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, November 9th, 2007. I'm Caleb Brown. He's known on the internet simply as Kareem.

And as of now, he's spent a year in an Egyptian prison for controversial comments he made on a blog.

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Tom G Palmer has met Kareem and has followed his case closely.

His full name is Abdel Karim Nabil Bill Soliman, but he's known as Karim to all of his friends

and everyone involved in this case.

And he's currently in prison with a four-year sentence for some really absurd charges because he wrote his

opinions on his blog. What are the claims against him? Well in particular he was brought before the public prosecutor on charges of

spreading information disruptive of public order, incitement to hate Muslims, and insulting the president.

He had written some things on his blog about the anti-Christian riots that took place in Egypt.

And in it he was critical of some of the extremist religious

elements in Egypt. He also made some comments interpreted by some as critical of

Islam. He also called the president of Egypt a dictator.

Such a heinous lie he was imprisoned for four years for claiming it was a dictatorship.

So he's currently up to his first year,

November 9 will be his first year in prison.

And as things stand, three more to go but we hope that the government

will commute his sentence and release him. There are at least 60 people in

prison around the globe specifically for what they've

posted on the internet but Kareem seems to have become something of a

poster boy can you talk about the the issue? Well according to reporters without borders which has a worldwide press freedom index

there are 64 people in prison around the world for expressing opinions on blogs. Most are in China, a number in

Vietnam and then some scattered and Kreme is a very important figure in this context because in Egypt he was really the first to be punished for

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