DUBAI: Appeal courts in Dubai have upheld an earlier jail sentence handed down to an expat for posting blasphemous comments on Facebook.
The man, who worked as a welder will now serve the one-year sentence before being deported, as well as pay a 500,000 dirham fine ($136,100).
The man, from India, had claimed his Facebook account had been hacked and that he had not written the comments about the Prophet that were found on his timeline on Nov. 6, 2016.
However investigators revealed that the man had signed out of his account and deleted all his personal data the day after the comments were posted according to local press reports.
Despite denials that he had accessed the account at the time, prosecutors said similar comments had been made on his account in October 2016
Prosecutors told the court that the man also posted comments that insulted Arabs and described as a “chaotic religion,” according to UAE daily The National.
He was arrested after a fellow Indian expat reported him to police after seeing the remarks on Facebook.
“I felt so offended by the insults against my prophet so I asked a friend who knew the suspect and where he lived and I went to his house in Al Rashidiyah and found him drunk,” the grocery shop worker was quoted in The National as saying.
The defendant was convicted earlier this year, but lodged an appeal against the sentence.
Under UAE law blasphemy is illegal or to discriminate against a person because of their religion – and technically this law applies to all religions.
Dubai appeals court upholds expat’s sentence for blasphemous Facebook post
Dubai appeals court upholds expat’s sentence for blasphemous Facebook post
‘Tehran’ producer Dana Eden found dead in Athens hotel room
- Greek police say death being treated as suicide
DUBAI: Dana Eden, a producer of the Israeli thriller series “Tehran,” was found dead in her hotel room in Athens on Sunday, according to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.
The 52-year-old was reportedly in Greece for the filming of the show’s fourth season, which stars Niv Sultan, Shaun Toub, and Hugh Laurie.
Greek police said that the cause of death had not been officially confirmed but that the case was being treated as a suicide based on available evidence and witness testimony, according to media reports.
Eden co-led the production company Donna and Shula Productions with showrunner Shula Spiegel.
In a statement issued Monday, the company said that “the rumors about criminal death or about a national background are not true and are not grounded,” and urged the media and public to “behave responsibly and sensibly” and “refrain from publishing unverified assumptions.
“It’s a moment of great pain for the family, friends and colleagues. We ask to preserve Dana’s dignity and the privacy of her dears,” the statement added.
