Defamation: Appeal on Feb 8

An appeals court will begin hearing on February 8, the case of a Bahraini Twitter user who was sentenced to one year for defaming a local media personnel.

The latter was attacked in Sitra, and the defendant praised the assailants on his Twitter account, tweeting “I kiss every hand that participated in breaking the hand of this naturalised. And I pray to God to paralyse his hand.”

He also verbally abused the victim, and spread rumours that the victim would be killed in Saudi Arabia while covering the Saudi-led military operations against rebels.

The accused was arrested after the media personnel filed a complaint against him.

The account the accused was using was initially tracked before he was nabbed.

He was being followed by around 82,000 Twitter users.