Man who defamed UAE on Twitter jailed for three years

Court also finds him guilty of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

ABU DHABI // A man who defamed the country and spread false information on a social networking site was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday.

Osama Al Najjar, 25, an Emirati, was found guilty of defaming the UAE, several government entities and state security procedures using his personal Twitter account.

At the Federal Supreme Court, Judge Mohammed Al Jarrah Al Tenaiji also fined him Dh500,000, ordered the closure of his Twitter account and confiscated all electronic devices related to the case.

Al Najjar was also convicted of having links to a secret organisation in the UAE with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in the UAE.

Last year, his father was convicted of being a member of the Brotherhood and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Al Najjar said he had only been posting on Twitter to show his support for his father.

At an earlier hearing he had said: “The purpose of the Twitter account was to defend my father. Publishing and sharing tweets is something many people do, that does not mean I am part of a group or a committee. I transcribed the reality of what was going on during the hearings, along with my personal opinions.”

He denied he had been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. “I didn’t participate or show victory to any sect or party like the Muslim Brotherhood or any other,” he said.

Evidence showed Al Najjar had written several tweets claiming his father’s prosecution had been unjust.

He described his father’s trial as “a comical theatre”.

Members of the prosecution had said that Al Najjar’s tweets had “created chaos and fear in the community”.

His lawyers, Hamdan Al Zeyoodi and Amal Khamees, had said his actions were due to his “irresponsible young self”.