Five Qatari nationals have been handed lengthy prison terms and ordered to pay large fines after a court in the UAE convicted them for posting insulting images of that country’s royal family on Twitter and Instagram, a UAE newspaper has reported.
The National said Hamad Al Hammadi, 33, was found guilty of attempting to ruin UAE government’s reputation by spreading insulting images of the country’s symbols.
He was ordered to spend 10 years in jail and pay a Dh1 million (QR990,880) fine. Four other Qatari individuals, which the newspaper did not name, were convicted in absentia and handed a life sentence as well as Dh1 million fines.
Several UAE residents reacted angrily after news of the verdict broke earlier today, saying the sentence was too lenient.
الحكم 10 سنوات وغرامة مليون درهم
على القطري حمد الحمادي
والسجن المؤبد غيابيا لأربعة آخرين
في قضية #بوعسكور التي تمثل
خسة و وقاحة الجار !— أحمد خليفة (@_A_khalifa) May 18, 2015
(Translation: What they did represents the insolence of the (UAE’s) neighbors and how low they stoop)
@_A_khalifa @mohd_alkhatri والله قليله في حقهم هذولي الانجاس
— wwfahd (@wwfahd1) May 18, 2015
(Translation: The sentence was too lenient for those lowlives)
Others jumped into the conversation by defending the convicted man and disparaging Emirati citizens with a common Arabic insult.
@wwfahd1 @_A_khalifa @mohd_alkhatri النجس أنت وطوايفك ياسفيهة ، جزمة أصغر قطري برأسك أنت وقبيلتك كلها
— Aba (@flynthesky22) May 18, 2015
(Translation: The shoes of the youngest Qatari is bigger than your head and the heads of (UAE nationals))
After reading some of the online comments, one Qatar resident said he hoped the people of the two countries would put their differences aside in the aftermath of last year’s diplomatic dispute:
“The two countries are coming together and the political unrest is fortunately becoming a thing of the past,” said Zaid Qassim. “That means coming together on all fronts, political resolutions between the governments … and avoiding tensions between the people of these countries be it social media or any other platform.”
The individuals were convicted of posted the material under the Twitter and Instagram accounts @bo3skor101, @bo3skor2021, @northsniper, @9ip and @bo3skor1011. Much of the offending material is still online, and also includes doctored, derogatory images of Qatar’s royal family.
During the trial, the convicted individuals were referred to as “foreign agents” working for Qatar’s state security agency.
Defense arguments
According to previous reports in The National, Al Hammadi’s lawyer conceded that his client had purchased the SIM cards for the phones on which the offending material was found. But he argued that Al Hammadi had bought the SIM cards on the direction of his manager and did not use them himself.
Additionally, the lawyer raised questions about who actually created the images. He said they had been circulated on a WhatsApp group chat and had been automatically downloaded to the phones that were eventually seized by investigators.
“There is no evidence that (Al Hammadi) was in fact the one using the number or devices in evidence, or the one behind the Twitter or Instagram accounts,” lawyer Hamdan Al Zeyoodi told the court, according to The National.
The prosecutor, meanwhile, argued that the defamation campaign was part of a “military mission” that involved the men pretending they were locals “to show that Emiratis had offended their own leaders,” The National reported in April.
The men were tried under the UAE’s cybercrime law, which was introduced in 2012 and has been condemned by human rights advocates. In a report last year, Amnesty International said authorities have used the law’s “broad and sweeping” provisions to prosecute activists for using Twitter and other social media platforms to criticize the UAE’s human rights record or to call for greater freedoms.
Qatar’s own cybercrime legislation was passed into law last September to comply with an agreement among Gulf states to criminalize online insults of the region’s royal families, Qatar’s former justice minister told Doha News last year.
Thoughts?
Well, travel just became very difficult for those convicted in abstentia. They’ll have to learn to like Qatar in the summer I think.
LONG live the USA …
FREEDOM of speech and FREEdom to say and do as you like !!
I advise a little more study of US 1st amendment laws. While it is true that these gentlemen would face no penalties if they had done this in the US, calling it freedom to “say and do as you like” will lead to sudden and unpleasant learning experience.
When we talk of freedom we do understand it isn’t an open book, but it’s a far less closed book than the Middle East.
Yep, preaching to the choir on that one. Just wanted to make sure that the OP didn’t get himself in trouble one day not fully understanding the situation.
yeah, great example of that is Guantanamo prison run by the US goverment.opps
Guantanamo is a great example of many systemic failings of the US interface between the judicial, legislative, executive and military branches of the government. But I don’t see any link between a prison camp in Cuba and the 1st Amendment.
when the comments say freedom in the US (so at least here in the ME you get a accused & trialed (though shame full ones in my opinion) where there. you be held without being accused of anything for years .
Point taken, but that’s not an issue related to freedom of speech. That’s a very real and very troubling example of where Habeas Corpus hasn’t been applied to the Guantanamo detainees.
Deleting the rest of this thread for getting off track…
I like your sarcasm.
unless your not white, where you get shot in the back by cops.
Deleting for irrelevance and subsequent thread.
“Several UAE residents reacted angrily after news of the verdict broke earlier today…”
*Of course they would. A million Riyals and ten years for an insult!????*
“saying the sentence was too lenient.”
Uhm…
Double take moment right there. I honestly thought they would say it was too much
Following on from the journalist articles and those that got imprisoned I must say these Qataris broke the law and got what they deserved. If there is a law you have to abide by it.
What happened to FoS in the previous article?
I’m just being sarcastic.
British man gets detained, he broke the law he deserved it.
Qataris get sentenced, you can’t trust Emirati justice it’s a disgrace. Such hypocrisy.
If only Darwin’s law came with an authoritarian to enforce it, we would have got rid of your dumb a$$ a long time ago.
Deleting for personal attack.
lol.. No no… How dare you!
The law suddenly takes a U-turn when it comes down to Qatar/Qataris. I think the Jews got it all wrong that they are the chosen people!… Now we know!
hehehe… good one
10 years-life in prison is a bit….wow
I know I am going to get a lot of backlash for saying this but here it is.
You know that defamation is against the law as is insulting royal families. Then you decide to make doctored insulting images and post them online?
Maybe he/they did not do what they are accused of and it had been someone else; there’s not too much info in the story. But if they did do it, what dimwits.
You seem to be really naive to believe in the Emirati “justice”. Just to give you a hint, it is not much different from the Egyptian justice. Moreover, the UAE has been very bullish in its behavior with Qatar recently because of the Egyptian issue. This story is also related to that.
What is really sad is that things seem to be always escalating from the UAE side while Qatar has been very diplomatic so far.
What goes around comes around.
Or as Pastor Jeremiah Wright said, “America’s chickens
are coming home to roost.” 😉
btw – who do you work for?
Or Qatari justice.
I’d still rather deal with the Qatari justice than the Emirati one. With all its shortcomings it still looks fairer to me.
Are you serious?
Good forbid obviously, but yes I am serious 🙂
Less of the two evils I’d agree, but I’d hate to be in a situation of dealing with either one.
That is exactly my point 🙂
Do you even know anything about the Emirati justice system? You wouldn’t have to ask that if you did.
Lets ask the parents of the kids killed at Villagio , the Sri Lankan teacher at QA accused of insulting islam by two 12 yr olds, the American couple accused of murdering their child and partly because “who would adopt african children”, the list is long and myriad.
There are way more similar cases in the UAE than here, but again, I am not saying the system here is great. It is just less awful than the UAE one.
Let’s ask the families of Trayvon Martin, Micheal Brown, Eric Garner, and all other, what do you call them? Ah, yes, “people of color”, who were killed by white vigilantes or law enforcement what they think of their justice system! Now there’s a list that is long and myriad!
Then there’s Gitmo, and that’s a whole lot of mess!
Funny how you told me not that long ago, with reference to violence by Islamic extremist in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, to clean up the $#*! in my “backyard”, but it seems you’re not bothered by your own room!
By the way, Yacine’s point was comparing the Emirati and Qatari justice systems, he did not claim that the Qatari one without flaws, or that it’s even a good one.
Yes lets compare a few isolated incidences of police brutality in the US to the acts of ISIS, Boko Haram, Taliban,… the list is long and myriad. You’re really not that daft are you?
Hahaha! “few isolated incidences of police brutality in the US”! Sure thing boss. All is good in good ol’ U.S.A. You betcha 🙂
By the way, I was comparing the failures of your Justice system to deliver justice in the cases I mentioned, to the cases in Qatar you brought up here. You know, comparing apples to apples.
That’s funny, based on desertcard’s writing style I would never have thought of her (I have assigned the her pronoun, it may be wrong) as American.
Deleting the rest of this thread for getting off track.
You’re the boss 😉
so your saying US justice is better,and the US arresting ALJAZEERA journalist , should also be another example. oh wait .what law did he break again ???
Your link?
http://www.globalissues.org/article/735/journalists-held-in-us-military-prisons
They broke the law, they knew the laws and should abide with them even if they think they are wrong. That’s the correct answer isn’t it?
What we are questioning here is the fact that they broke the law. The Emirati justice is not one you would trust for this kind of things, and it is clear that the trial was politicized. That’s how I see it anyway but I might be wrong.
Arresting journalists in Qatar is politcised as they don’t want them airing their stories in the outside world….
In the UAE this journalist would serve a much longer sentence, but yes you are right Qatar Also might resort to political pressure with regards to some issues.
and the US arresting ALJAZEERA journalist , should also be another example. oh wait .what law did he break again ???
Do you have a link? I’m familiar with Al Jazeera ‘journalists’ arrested for illegally flying drones over restricted airspace in Paris. I’ve seen nothing about US arrests.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/735/journalists-held-in-us-military-prisons
sami alhajj, arrested for no giving reason. google it
Deleting the rest of this thread for getting off track.
I’m not so sure about the bit that “they knew the laws”!
But consider this: by that logic, one could easily argue that many of the people commenting here, yourself included, are often breaking the law while commenting here.
Even if you don’t know the law, ignorance is no defence! The point I am making it is hypocritical to say the Brit journalist got what he deserved because he broke the laws even if you don’t like them and then to say the opposite in this case.
It depends; in the case of the journalist who started filming without having obtained a permit, he knew he put himself in a questionable position.
The case of the BBC journalist, on the other hand, seems closer to this case, as there appears to have been a misunderstanding regarding the type of visa he needed. Based on the fact of that case I’ve read hear, I do think keeping him in custody for 2-3 days was a bit too much.
Regardless, there is a big difference between people arrested for actually having the wrong visa or going around doing things without having a permit, and handing someone a life sentence and 1 M Dh for publishing something or commenting online.
I do agree with you as I do on many thing. For the qataris I saw the pictures. Offensive yes but that makes them a**holes not criminals
Completely agree. The first journalists (from German media) came in under false pretenses & didn’t get the proper visa to work in Qatar. The BBC ones were invited according to my knowledge & Qataris involved over-reacted.
Life sentences & steep fines for this kind of thing just seems cray….
If you were being honest, you’d have to include yourself in that category too, wouldn’t you?
I’m not if it’s my writing skills are causing the confusion, or your reading comprehension. I guess we’ll never know.
Yep, just keep telling yourself that.
Never said it was true or false. Just said that if they did do it, they were not the brightest fellows. Plus the defamation law applies to all GCC countries. If they were in Qatar they would have been arrested for the pictures as well…if they did it.
These lawyers are born stupid or they become one once they’re lawyers?
“UAE is an open country forever, since ever …” oh sorry that was Qatar wasn’t it.
It seems like a race in trying to prove who is more easily offended. You can’t make this stuff up.
oh, grow up !… dont know what is worse – the childishness of the ‘insult’ or the petty over-reaction to it !
Will somebody please explain this ‘insult’ and why it is considered insulting? (Translation: The shoes of the youngest Qatari is bigger than your head and the heads of (UAE nationals))
is this the insult?!! for this life sentence!!!!!
Copied verbatim from the article which took it from a twitter feed. Guess this is one of those things that doesn’t translate well.
Think about it in the context of showing the soles of your shoes or throwing a shoe. Shoes are dirty and “low” for want of a better term. So something so low from a Qatari child is better than an Emirati & their ability to think.
Personally I really feel for the Qataris that have been imprisoned under such draconian laws, perhaps it can assist in Qatar looking at their own similar laws and thinking, hang on, perhaps we need to be less worried about what people say and more about what people do or conspire to do? I mean calling the Emir an unpleasant name, so what, but plotting to harm the Emir that’s a different story. Get my drift.
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Deleting for spam.
Notice that the defense didn’t raise any FoS or HR kind or argument as this would lead to nowhere. Instead the defense focused on trying to prove that the defendants are not responsible for the material. This shows the massive need for reform of the entire justice system across the region.
I may be naive, but something tells me that the sentence has been inflated in order to act as a deterrent. Hopefully the man will be held for a short while and (quietly) released as a result of some negotiation.
It seems that manipulating the media to “Improve” Qatar’s image is a big job for Qatar’s State Security services,
as the BBC dicovered trying to report on migrant worker’s conditions in Doha.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32775563
This is one of the funniest things I’ve read in the last few days. Divorced from it’s cultural context — and even in it — the “insults” are quite silly and adolescent 🙂