Tayseer al-Najjar to receive his final verdict tomorrow

Jordanian poet and journalist Tayseer Salman al-Najjar is scheduled to receive his final verdit  before the Federal Appeal Court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 15 March.

Al-Najjar was brought before the Criminal Chamber of the Federal Appeal Court in Abu Dhabi on 18 January, and again on 1 and 15 February, facing charges of “damaging the reputation and prestige of the Emirati state”, in connection with a comment he posted on Facebook. 

Al-Najjar, a poet and a journalist specialising in culture for the Abu Dhabi al-Dar newspaper, was brought to court on February 15, 2017 over a Facebook post that he published while in Jordan, in which he expressed his solidarity with the resistance in Gaza and criticized the UAE's position on the issue.

Al-Najjar was arrested by the State Security Apparatus on December 13, 2015, when he was about to travel to Jordan for vacation.

 He was then forcibly disappeared for a three months’ period, during which his whereabouts remained unknown. In addition, he was deprived of access to a lawyer and family visits.

Since then, he has been detained in the Al Wathba prison where he was exposed to several human rights violations and torture, causing him serious health problems.