A man has been jailed in Egypt for "insulting Islam" on Facebook. 

Ayman Youssef Mansur, who had been arrested in August, was sentenced to three years with hard labour by a civilian court on Saturday on charges of "exploitation of religion to promote extremist ideas with the intention of inciting sectarian strife, damaging national unity and insulting the Islamic religion".

Details of the case are scanty and it is unclear exactly what he said. Al-Ahram's website, quoting the court's verdict, says that his "outrageous and scurrilous" remarks on Facebook "deliberately offended the dignity of Islam and subjected it to ridicule and mockery, in addition to insult, scorn and contempt ... focused on the Quran and the religion of Islam and the Prophet of Islam and Muslims and members of his household."

In 2007, Kareen Amer was sentenced to four years for "incitement to hate Islam" and "defaming the president of the republic" – and became the first Egyptian to be jailed purely for blogging activities. He was eventually released last November.

In April, 26-year-old Maikel Nabil was given three years by a military court for criticising the army in a blog article. He later went on hunger strike and last week a court ordered him to be 
transferred to a psychiatric hospital.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 23 October 2011.