Palestinian journalist jailed for a year for ‘insulting’ Abbas

Arab Journalist sentenced to a year in prison by Palestinian Authority court after posting photo comparing Abbas’s face to a fictional villain on a Syrian TV show.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Palestinian journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh from Bethlehem was sentenced on Thursday to one year in prison for “insulting” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook.

The photo that landed Palestinian journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh in jail.

The photo that landed Palestinian journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh in jail. – Photo: Courtesy

He is the second Palestinian to be sentenced to prison for one year on the same charges since the beginning of the year.

Hamamreh, who works for the Palestinian Al-Quds TV station, was found guilty of sharing a photo on Facebook that compared Abbas with a villain who played the role of a French spy in a popular Syrian TV series.

A PA court in Bethlehem found the journalist guilty of publishing a photo “harming His Excellency the President, disseminating lies, libel and slander and publishing material that spreads seeds of hatred.”

In February, a PA court in Nablus sentenced 26-year-old Anas Said Awad to one year in prison for publishing a photo of Abbas on Facebook depicting the PA president as a player for Real Madrid.

Last year, the PA security forces in the West Bank detained a number of Palestinian journalists and activists for posting critical comments and jokes about the PA president and other leaders on Facebook.

 

View original Jerusalem Post at: http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Palestinian-journalist-jailed-for-insulting-Abbas-308014