UAE convicts Jordanian for Criticizing Jordan’s Royal Family on Social Media

Jordanian resident of the UAE, Ahmed Etoum, was imprisoned on the basis of peaceful Facebook posts criticising the Jordanian government, Human Rights Watch announced yesterday.

Etoum was arrested in May 2020 and later sentenced to 10-years in prison for posting nonviolent political commentary of the Jordanian government and royal family on his online profile. The official charge is based on Article 166 of the UAE penal code, which criminalises any ‘hostile act against a foreign country’ that could damage political relations or endanger national security. Etoum was also charged under the UAE’s draconian 2012 cybercrime law which criminalises freedom of speech online. 

His prosecution for committing ‘hostile acts against a foreign state’ is not an isolated incident in the UAE. His case parallels that of other activists, including Dr Nasser bin Ghaith, an Emirati economist and lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of Paris Sorbonne University arrested in 2015. Like Etoum, bin Ghaith was convicted on charges of criticising human rights violations in a foreign country - Egypt - as well as Emirati rulers in social media posts. He too is serving a 10-year prison sentence. 

Etoum and bin Ghaith remain in al-Wathba and al-Razeen prisons, respectively. They both have been subjected to long periods of solitary confinement and lack of due process in accordance with international standards. 

The persecutions of Ahmed Etoum and Dr Nasser bin Ghaith highlight the UAE’s increased crackdown on peaceful dissent, including criticism of regional allied governments, to such an extent that free speech and civil society are now virtually nonexistent in the country.