Al Marg Misdemeanor Court on Wednesday sentenced the Egyptian atheist Alber Saber to 3 years jail, and to ensure 1000 LE on charges of insulting religion. Saber has been charged under Article 98(w) of the Egyptian Penal Code. This article, criticized by rights lawyers as unconstitutional, criminalizes the “use” of religion to “promote extremist thoughts with the intention of creating dissent or insulting an Abrahamic religion” or “undermining national unity.” Article 98(w) lays down a maximum prison sentence of five years. Any custodial sentence handed down to Saber could however be increased by another three years under article 160 of the Penal Code, which also deals with religious crimes. Saber, a 27-year-old computer programming student from Cairo was arrested in September when a mob accusing him of ripping up the Quran and publishing anti-Islamic content online surrounded his house. Amnesty International describes Saber as a prisoner of conscience. The public prosecution office charge sheet against him states that Saber both “insulted God and cast doubt on the books of the Abrahamic religions” and “denied the existence of God and his creation of mankind.” Saber is also alleged to have doubted the validity of some verses of the Quran and the Bible. In its statement to the court during the first trial session, the public prosecution stated that “there is a difference between freedom of opinion and freedom of belief because the latter is constrained by the obligation not to [defame] the creator, his sacred creations or rituals.”
