From Human Rights Watch

(Beirut) – The United Arab Emirates should immediately release Tayseer al-Najjar, a Jordanian journalist who, on December 13, 2018, completed a three-year prison sentence, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders said in a letter to the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, that was released today. The prison sentence violated al-Najjar’s rights to free expression and to a fair trial.

The UAE Federal Supreme Court convicted al-Najjar under article 29 of the UAE cybercrime law in March 2017 and sentenced him to three years in prison and a fine of 500,000 UAE Dirhams (US$136,000) for “insulting the state’s symbols.” The 2012 cybercrime law imposes prison sentences from 3 to 15 years for publishing information online with the “intent to make sarcasm or damage the reputation, prestige or stature of the State or any of its institutions.” While al-Najjar completed his sentence on December 13, after three years behind bars, he cannot pay the substantial fine and under UAE law must remain in prison another six months.

“Al-Najjar, who should not have been jailed in the first place, should not have to suffer another day in a UAE prison,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “If the UAE were truly committed to its rhetoric of tolerance, it would not have ripped Najjar away from his wife and children for years-old innocuous Facebook posts.”

Al-Najjar’s conviction was based on Facebook posts written before he moved to the UAE to work as a culture reporter for Dar newspaper in April 2015. The trial judgment also cited comments he allegedly made to his wife on the telephone that were critical of the UAE, but did not state how authorities obtained records of the calls.

On December 3, 2015, UAE authorities at Abu Dhabi International Airport prevented al-Najjar from boarding a flight to Jordan to visit his wife and children, said al-Najjar’s wife, Majida Hourani. The police in Abu Dhabi detained him on December 13 and held him for nearly two months before UAE officials confirmed his detention. Al-Najjar told his wife he was not aware of the name or whereabouts of the detention center where he was held before his transfer in early March 2016 to al-Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi, where he is currently held.

See full report here.