Egyptian Blogger Busted

An Egyptian Military Tribunal recently convicted a blogger of insulting the army and sentenced him to three years in prison.  This has no doubt been very distressing to activist's fears that the army is against reform and freedom of speech.

A member of the military council, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Assar, told an Egyptian private TV station this,  "There is a difference between criticism with good intentions from a citizen, a journalist or a broadcaster, who mean the public good. There is no problem with that," he said. "The problem is in questioning the intentions [of the army]."

I guess that you can only give the Egyptian military constructive criticism with "good intentions." The military court issued the sentence against 25-year-old Maikel Nabil Sanad.  Sanad carried reports of abuses by the military and accused it of still being loyal to formal President Hosni Mubarak.  He also stated that "The people and the Army were never hand in hand."  The military was afraid that his postings would "agitate" others and "affect people."  

Egypt is currently trying to move away from a past of abusive practices, I would have to say that the prosecution of a blogger for making statements such as these are a step in wrong direction.