Religious figure pleads not guilty in defamation case

A Bahraini religious figure accused of insulting a symbol belonging to a Muslim sect online pleaded not guilty before the Lower Criminal Court.

The defendant was put on trial for defaming the symbol on Twitter, but he stated that he had only intended to discuss a scientific study. The defendant was arrested after the police received a complaint from the anti-cybercrimes directorate over the tweet he published.

Prosecutors said that the defendant had admitted to owning the account which tweeted the comment in question. He was earlier ordered to be detained for seven days, pending the outcome of his trial. He will appear before the court on August 14 for the closing arguments.