Religious figure found guilty in defamation case

A Bahraini religious figure accused of insulting a symbol of a Muslim sect online was yesterday sentenced to six months behind bars. The jail term was replaced immediately by social service.

The defendant was earlier granted bail by the Lower Criminal Court. He was detained after tweeting a comment which was deemed defamatory against the symbol. But his lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj told the court that the defendant was only sharing the opinions of scholars.

“My client was only passing some scholars’ point of view on the symbol, which wasn’t his. He simply didn’t mean to insult anybody,” Al Hawaj said in her closing arguments two weeks ago. “My client has decided to take part in the next parliamentary elections, and there are many trouble-makers trying to set up traps on his way to obstruct him. “I don’t believe there is any harm in sharing other scholars’ opinions on anything because there isn’t an article in our penal law criminalising such an act,” she added.