Emirati jailed again in Internet defamation case

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2007

DUBAI (AFP) — An Emirati man charged with defamation on an Internet site was sent back to jail on Thursday, one week after a court in the United Arab Emirates released him on bail, sources close to the case said.

The sources told AFP that Khaled al-Asli, who denies being the author of an online article allegedly slandering a local official in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah and posted under a pen name, was put again behind bars after a court hearing.

He had been freed on bail on August 23.

The owner of the popular website, Mohammad Rashed al-Shehhi, is appealing a one-year jail sentence passed earlier in August also on defamation charges. He was ordered to pay the equivalent of 19,000 dollars in fines and compensation to another local official who sued his...