ABU DHABI // Visitors to websites that promote terrorist activities - many of which are accessible in this country - can now be charged with supporting terrorism, though strong evidence of criminal intent is required for conviction, a top state security judge says.
Chief Justice Shehab al Hammadi, who presides over all state security cases at the Federal Supreme Court, said a legal precedent had been set with the conviction of six people in April for operating a terror organisation, meaning that viewing such sites could now be considered a crime. As the first case to include charges of visiting jihadi websites it paved the way for other courts to approve charges against visitors to such sites.
Mr al Hammadi said that even if a website was not blocked, convictions could still be obtained if prosecutors showed a defendant had "criminal intentions" in visiting them. Examples, he saidd, included downloading extremist content from the websites or forwarding links to friends. "These websites are available for everyone and it is almost impossible to block them, just like it is difficult to monitor all satellite channels. But when a person visits them and spreads their news or content among his or her acquaintance, that is considered like a crime they witnessed or committed," Chief Justice al Hammadi said in an interview with The National.
Dozens of such web pages are accessible in the UAE. Experts say their glorification of jihad can influence impressionable young people. Many show music video-style montages of extremist attacks against the US military, often accompanied by traditional Islamic nasheed songs calling for more violence. Links and downloadable videos are posted by members who go by names such as "war lion", "mujahid" and "fearless warrior".
Dr Ahmed Alomosh, chairman of the sociology department at the University of Sharjah, said the videos and songs were powerful "mobilisation" tools, but suggested that their effect was short-term and their appeal limited to specific types people. "They carry references to a glorious past that tug at the heart strings of impressionable adherents," he said. The recent sentencing of five Emirati men and one Afghan for terrorism-related offences was the case in question.
All six were convicted and sentenced to three years in prison each for financially supporting a terrorist organisation. The verdicts cannot be appealed. However, two of the defendants were also charged with visiting "jihadi websites". They confessed to downloading material that included videos of suicide operations in Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, as well as spreading news of "jihad", but told prosecutors they did not mean to propagate them.
The court found they also downloaded pornography, music and western films, which it considered evidence that the men were not extremists. The court also found the videos they downloaded were popular media "broadcasted on satellite channels". The two men were acquitted of that specific charge because of "the absence of criminal intention". Justice Falah al Hajeri of the Federal Supreme Court ruled that although one defendant, identified as SA, 18, downloaded several videos of suicide operations and another, YM, 31, showed the jihadi websites to friends in his house, there was "no evidence in the court records that they did that with the intention of glorifying suicide operations - only because their friends requested that from them".
Two other defendants, Rashid Dawood, 34, and Abdullah Hassan, 27, were additionally found guilty of "promoting jihadi groups" as well as distributing military training videos. They were sentenced to an extra year in jail each for their membership in the jihadist organisation they set up. Dr Ali Ahmed al Mannaei, the lawyer who represented the Emirati defendants, had argued that they should not have been charged with a crime because the websites were not blocked.
@Email:hhassan@thenational.ae
