Tayseer Najjar ( ar, تيسير النجار) (1975 – 19 February 2021) was a Jordanian journalist who was convicted in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

(UAE) and given a three-year prison term for violating the country's

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

law. He was sentenced under Article 29 of the United Arab Emirates cyber crime law, by posting comments on the social network

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

expressing support to armed groups in Gaza and criticising the UAE's support of Egypt's decision to destroy Hamas tunnels in the 2014 Israeli aggression on Gaza. Tayseer was due to be released on 13 December 2018, and was facing a fine of AED 500,000, equivalent to US$136,000. Tayseer's sentence was extended six more months because he was unable to pay the fine. On 12 February 2019, Najjar was released from prison and returned to his home country,

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

. His fine was pardoned.

Background

According to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

, Najjar was convicted on the basis of his Facebook posts written before he moved to the UAE and criticism on phone calls with his wife. Reportedly, his critical conversations with his wife over the telephone were cited by the trial judgment without disclosing how the UAE authorities obtained records of the calls. Human Rights Watch stated that Najjar's rights to due process and a fair trial were violated by the UAE authorities by not allowing him to access a lawyer including during interrogations, for more than a year. Najjar wrote on Facebook: Najjar was questioned about expressing his support for armed groups.

Death

He died on 19 February 2021 in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

, due to a pre-existing heart condition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Najjar, Tayseer 1975 births 2021 deaths Jordanian journalists Freedom of speech Cybercrime Date of birth missing Place of birth missing 21st-century journalists Prisoners and detainees of the United Arab Emirates Jordanian prisoners and detainees