Kareem, whose full name is Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman Amer, hadn't taken a particularly high-profile place in the recent protests. His criticism of Islam is still resented by many in Egypt. He had enough enemies because of the content of his blog that it was uncertain who took him, private citizens or police.

Cairo-based activist Dalia Ziada reported on the release via Twitter about three hours ago, about 2:45 a.m. Friday local time.

We will update this post as more information becomes available.

Other sources: Andy Carvin

Suleiman, who blogged under the name Kareem Amer, was sentenced in 2006 to four years of jail for insulting religion and the leadership of Egypt on his blog. He was critical of, among other things, Egypt's treatment of women and of its Coptic Christian minority. Supporters report that during those four years, Amer was tortured, beaten, attacked by other prisoners, disowned by his family and had his books, letters and personal effects taken away. His case is of international interest not just because of his humanity, but because of the political conflict between authoritarian states and a new world of freely self-published bloggers who would challenge them with new Web technology.

Amer's supporters say he is declining interviews while recovering from his detention.

Part of a Larger Trend

Though Kareem Amer was the longest-imprisoned blogger known, detained for most of the history of this young phenomenon called Social Media, he was not alone.

A report by international media watchdog organization Reporters Sans Frontières last year found that there were 151 people in prison around the world because of the contents of their blogs in 2009, a nearly three-fold increase over 2008.

Iranian cultural satire blogger Omid Reza Misayafi is believed to be the only blogger killed in prison to date. He was sentenced in 2008 to 30 months in prison for "insulting Islamic Republic Leaders" but died under mysterious and allegedly abusive circumstances after just six months of detention.

With brave bloggers in mind who are free, imprisoned and deceased around the world, we leave you with the moving short video Iran: A Nation of Bloggers, about just one of many places where disruptive social media and authoritarian tradition clash, and where the stakes are at their highest.

The one thing that's made a big difference for Kareem, his supporters say, has been international attention. Now those supporters are calling for a two week campaign of snail-mail sent to the jail.

Resources

Kareem's primary support group is FreeKareem.org. (Very slow page load.) His crime was in large part denying the truth of Islam, but his supporters say they are primarily Muslims who defend his right to do so.

More in depth coverage of this and other cases can be found at The Committee to Protect Bloggers.

The "Flood the Jail with Mail" campaign is asking you to send a letter or a postcard to Kareem between April 7th and the 21st. You can click on the button below to add a reminder to your Google Calendar.

So far he's been receiving physical mail. Below are the addresses you can use to send that mail, both the English and the Arabic must be present, so fire up your printer and print this page.

Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt

In too many other cases, the Western tech community has dropped the ball for people working online but living in different places. See, for example, the terrible treatment by YouTube of Egyptian video blogger Wael Abbas, whose police brutality watchdog videos were deleted from the site by the company.

We hope you'll set up a reminder and take a few minutes next month to send Kareem a postcard.