Human Rights: 3 years in jail, 360 lashes for seeking sex partner on Twitter

A Saudi court sentenced a man to three years in jail and ordered him lashed 360 times after he was found guilty of offering himself to other men through Twitter.

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police had arrested the man in the eastern town of Dammam following complaints by some men that the unnamed defendant had contacted them through his Twitter page and offered to have sex with him.

During interrogation by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the 30-year-old man confessed to making such offers to several men.

“The judge sentenced him to three years in prison and ordered him lashed 360 times as a deterrent punishment for such an act,” Sabq daily said without identifying the man.

Source: Emirates 24/7, Feb. 3, 2014

Human Rights: Saudi gets jail and 80 lashes over Twitter libel

Saudi police ready a square for public floggings
in the Saudi city of Khobar, Sept. 28, 2009.

Riyadh: A Saudi court has sentenced a man convicted of defaming a Saudi-Kuwaiti singer by accusing her on Twitter of adultery to three months in jail and 80 lashes, a news website reported on Thursday.

The Saudi national, apparently a fan of a rival pop star, was sentenced for “accusing (Kuwaiti singer) Shams of adultery without providing proof,” the Saudi Sabq news website cited the verdict as saying.

As well as accusing Shams of adultery, he posted fabricated photos depicting her in “obscene” situations, Sabq said, without elaborating.

The ruling is based on Sharia, which stipulates flogging for those who accuse others of having extra-marital sex without giving proof.

The man was also jailed for three months and fined 10,000 riyals (Dh9,793), the news website said.

Source: Gulf News, January 4, 2014

Saudi blogger may face death penalty for apostasy

Saudi blogger and activist, Raif Badawi, currently serving his 7-year prison term for “insulting Islam”, may soon appear in a higher court on graver charges of apostasy. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death.

Raif Badawi is the founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, created in 2008 to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia freely. Badawi’s persecution for what was described as “insulting Islam” started the same year the site was set up. The blogger then fled the country to escape arrest. He returned when the charges against him were dropped, but was eventually jailed in June 2012.

In July this year, a criminal court in Jeddah found the man guilty of insulting Islam through his online forum and of violating Saudi Arabia’s anti-cybercrime law. Badawi was sentenced to 600 lashes and 7 years in prison.

Badawi’s possible retrial is the latest episode in the country’s crackdown on dissent. Four members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) were jailed in 2013. In the most recent case in December, 24-year-old Omar al-Saed was sentenced to four years in prison and 300 lashes after calling for political reform.

Click here to read the full article

Source: RT.com, December 26, 2013

Jodi Arias Trial Update: Media Blackout Granted For Sentencing Retrial

Arizona Death Chamber

Jodi Arias' sentencing retrial will occur in virtual privacy, as the presiding judge has ruled in favor of a media blackout.

Cameras are not permitted into the courtroom as Arias' fate is once again put in the hands of a jury, declared Maricopa County Judge Sherry Stephens. Those granted access into the arena, are forbidden from using Twitter to report on the proceedings in the instantaneous 140 characters or less posts. In fact, Stephens has banned media from carrying any and all electronic devices into the courtroom.

As could be expected, members of the media are outraged at what they see as a violation of constitutional rights. First Amendment attorney's are championing the cause of the media, claiming that Stephens is violating the constitution and has not ruled in the public interest.

Arias' murder trial, which ended in May, was aired on TV from the beginning to the end. The proceedings were dissected on news shows, in the papers and online. Live updates on the trial were available everywhere, with insiders tweeting breaking developments. Outside of the courtroom, Arias gladly took the opportunity to give exclusive interviews, sharing her version of the narrative.

In the end, Arias was found guilty of 1st-degree murder, forcing the jury to contemplate sentencing the 33-year-old convicted killer of Travis Alexander to the death penalty. Since the jurors were not in agreement, another jury must be composed to weigh Arias' fate.

Source: uinterview.com, December 4, 2013

Facebook viral appeals fail to save Saudi from execution

Appeals for victim’s relatives to accept blood money went viral on social media

Saudi Arabia on Monday executed a local man who was convicted of murdering another Saudi during a fight a few years despite a flood of online appeals for the victim’s relatives to pardon him, newspapers reported.

The Interior Ministry, in a statement carried by the local press, said it had executed Dhafir bin Hadi Al Baltaheen by a firing squad for killing Ayed bin Mohammed Al Qashanin during a scuffle in the southern province of Najran.

Social networks in the Middle East’s most conservative Muslim nation went viral on Sunday with public appeals for the victim’s relatives to accept diya (blood money) and pardon the killer in line with Islamic law.

The Ministry said the defendant had confessed to killing Qashanin by a machine gun during the fight and that the death sentence was approved by the supreme court.

Newspapers did not specify the age of the killer and the victim but Sabq daily had earlier indicated Baltaheen would be executed after the victim’s family rejected mediation bids by tribal chiefs over the past years to pardon the defendant.

Under Islamic law, which is enforced to the letter in Saudi Arabia, a killer can be saved from execution and set free if pardoned by the victim’s relatives for diya.

Source: Emirate, 24/7, November 4, 2013

Saudi killer set for Monday beheading: Appeals for pardon go viral

Appeals for victim’s relatives to accept blood money

Saudi social network users are racing against time to save a local man who will be executed on Monday after he was convicted of killing another Saudi a few years ago.

Facebook and other networks were flooded with appeals on Sunday for the victim’s relatives to accept diya (blood money) and pardon Dhafir Aba Al Taheen, who killed a young Saudi man during a fight in the southern Saudi province of Najran six years ago.

“Facebook, What’s App and other networks went viral yesterday and more today. The people of Najran and other areas are appealing for the victim’s relatives to pardon Taheen so they will be rewarded by God the Almighty,” Sabq daily said.

Under Islamic law, which is strictly enforced in conservative Moslem Saudi Arabia, a convicted killer can be saved from the gallows if pardoned by the victim’s family in return for blood money.

Source: Emirates 24/7, November 3, 2013

Saudi 'blasphemy' tweep Kashgari released

Saudi authorities jailed him for nearly two years without trial for his tweets

Riyadh: After nearly two years in prison, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday freed a young Saudi writer whose tweets on the Prophet Mohammad sparked a conservative furore and an international manhunt.

Hamza Kashgari, 23 when he was jailed in February 2011, walked out of prison around dawn on Tuesday, a close friend of the family said.

Kashgari tweeted for the first time since his imprisonment at around 8am local time (0500 GMT): “Mornings of hope...souls that live and never die. Thanks to God.”

Kashgari’s lawyer, Abdul Rahman Allahim, confirmed the release in another tweet.

A writer and newspaper columnist in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Kashgari in February 2011 tweeted a series of comments reflecting meditatively on the human side of the Prophet, and imagining a meeting between himself and the Prophet.

Religious conservatives in the kingdom called the tweets blasphemous. Clerics — one of whom posted a video on YouTube of himself weeping at the perceived insult to the Prophet — called for Kashgari’s death.

After fleeing Saudi Arabia to escape death threats, Kashgari was arrested in Malaysia. Saudi authorities jailed him for nearly two years without trial.

There was no immediate government comment on his release on Tuesday.

The episode signalled both the vast divide between conservative and liberal factions in Saudi Arabia, and the growing importance of Twitter and other social media in Saudi Arabia to marshal support for causes on both sides of the political spectrum.

Source: Gulf News, October 29, 2013

China toddler death: Suspect trial begins

Han Lei said he did not realise that he had thrown a pram carrying an infant.

A Chinese man accused of throwing a toddler to the ground during a parking space row has been put on trial in Beijing, state media report.

Han Lei reportedly pulled the 2-year-old girl out of her pram and threw her to the ground after her mother refused to make way for his car.

The girl later died from her injuries. The incident, in July, sparked a public outcry.

Han Lei has been charged with intentional homicide.

The trial began on Monday morning at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, Chinese media said.

Han Lei also beat the mother during the altercation in Beijing's Daxing district, reports said.

Another man, Li Ming, who drove Han Lei away from the scene, is also being tried.

The prosecution said that Han Lei had acted violently and brutally over an argument, and recommended the death penalty, state broadcaster CCTV said.

According to quotes carried by CCTV, Han Lei told the court that he had mistaken the pram for a shopping cart, and thrown it in anger because he did not want to fight with the woman.

"I thought all along that it was a shopping cart, not a pram," he said. "I did not know there was an infant inside."

Microbloggers divided

The trial has generated intense discussion on China's microblogs, with searches for "Beijing toddler throwing case" ranking within the top 10 searches on Sina Weibo.

Opinion was split over the prosecutor's call for the death penalty. Many weibo users said that Han Lei should be executed.

Microblog user Asian Dragon Warrior wrote: "I support a death sentence, since we know of the principle of paying for killing with one's life... this is the only way to ensure people constrain their behaviour. One must think carefully before acting, and the law is more than a decoration, so offenders should be punished."

However, Sina Weibo user Manchester United Number 11 wrote: "Unsurprisingly, the Beijing toddler throwing trial has prompted widespread cries for the death penalty. Han Lei's crime cannot be forgiven, and he should be punished, however this should be determined by the law."

"Was Han Lei suffering a mental disorder, or is there a possibility it was a crime of passion? Is there any fault on the infant's mother's side in this case?" another weibo user wrote.

The trial has prompted many to reflect on Chinese society more generally. User Xiao Ge Bu Shuai Ao wrote: "The only way to stop this tragedy happening again is for everyone to respect each other more, with a little more tolerance, and seeing things from another's point of view more."

Source: BBC News, September 15, 2013

Some amazing social media stats

source All labels are clickable and lead to new stats.

Court delays Egypt brutality case verdict

Court postpones verdict on policemen charged over death of Khaled Said, whose case helped spark Egypt's revolution.

Khaled Said's death caused public outrage that paved the way for the January 2011 uprising.

The trial of 2 Egyptian policemen charged over the death of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old man allegedly fatally beaten in Alexandria a year ago, has been postponed until September 24, a judge told the court on Thursday.

Said died in June 2010, allegedly after being dragged out of an internet cafe by plain-clothes police and assaulted in the street, according to witnesses.

Pictures of his body, taken by his family in a morgue, caused public outrage that paved the way for Egypt's January 2011 uprising.

Young Egyptians used social media such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the message, and to coordinate protests in Cairo and Alexandria calling for an end to torture and impunity.

Facebook pages set up to express anger at Khaled Said's death would later be used to coordinate 'Day of Rage' protests on the streets of Cairo.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin speaking from Alexandria outside the courthouse, said that lawyers for Khalid's family submitted a new independent autopsy that could change the charges from manslaughter to torture and murder.

"If new charges are filed against the two police officers they could include torture and murder. which carries the death penalty. Under the current charges they would have been sentenced to seven to 15 years.

"But with the new charges they could face either life in prison or the death sentence."

Mohyeldin emphasised the presence of many protesters gathered in expectation of hearing a verdict because the trial had become an iconic symbol of the struggle of many young Egyptians.

"A year after his death, Khaled Said’s family still wait for justice. His case highlights the widely shared belief that the Egyptian authorities are still not doing enough to deliver justice - not only for Khaled Said but for all those unlawfully killed and injured by the security forces during mass protests earlier this year," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"This belief is exacerbated by the slowness with which the authorities are handling trials of police officers accused of killing protesters during the uprising, when more than 800 died, and the fact that many of those facing trial have not been suspended from active duty and remain in positions where they can intimidate witnesses and subvert justice," he said.

Speaking to Al Jazeera before the trial's postponement, Said’s uncle, Ali El-Qassam, said: "We are anxious, but hopeful about the verdict.

"I know that everyone in the world will be following the outcome. I know the Egyptian youth will react to whatever outcome the verdict will be in a peaceful and civil manner that represents Egypt."

Source: Al Jazeera, June 30, 2011

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Real Life Social Networks

Paul Adams, a senior user experience researcher at Google created an extremely rich and insightful presentation looking at the challenges that real-life social networks bring to web design.

When it comes to reflecting our real life social networks into what could be considered rudimentary online networks, there is a real design challenge in terms representing how your friends, colleagues and associates inter-relate to each other.
****

Social technologies such as Facebook and Twitter have a homogenised view of friendship; they group everyone together. This typically doesn’t reflect how real friendships are nurtured and naturally creates communication challenges.

For example, not everyone will want to know on a daily basis about your fondness of cats, or wants to know about your regular eating habits.

So next time before you tag your photo’s on Facebook, Flickr or send that Tweet consider who will actually see it and do they need to?

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams.

hattip

R v Internet - or was it journos v lawyers, and where is the horse?

I was at the R v Internet seminar today. It appears journalists and internet people were outnumbered by legal people and public servants.

It was an interesting forum, with everyone recognising that the Internet makes name suppression of celebrities redundant, and can threaten an accused's right to a fair trial. Some such as Victoria University Professor Tony Smith, considered that many problems were to do with the unregulated blogosphere. Steven Price, himself a blogger, as well as a university lecturer with legal and journalism credentials, was more realistic about what to do when suppression is breached. In short, the genie is out of the bottle, the horse has bolted, and there's nothing you can do. However, judges should direct juries to enable fair trials by advising that information "out there" may not be reliable.

Deputy Law Commissioner Warren Young, in talking about the recent Law Commission report, Suppressing Names and Evidence [PDF] explained how the Commission wants to tighten laws around suppression, particularly those of celebrities. Young did not consider the " horse had bolted", and made an analogy between suppression and shoplifting. Namely the fact that while lots of people know the name of a certain celebrity does not mean that suppression should be done away with just as many people who shoplift does not mean that shoplifting should be decriminalised. Yet there's a distinction: Many people consider that suppression - particularly of celebrities - should not be against the law, whereas most believe shoplifting should be illegal.

Judge David Harvey spoke in the afternoon and livened things up. He thinks the Internet can be regulated, and pointed to China as an example of regulation. But when asked about sites like Facebook and Twitter, he was out of his depth. He doesn't appear to have heard of platforms such as ping.fm where you can simultaneously post an item to Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, blogs and other social networking sites. Rather than " the horse has bolted" he appears to think that the horse has briefly wandered out of the stable, and on a leash, but is unsure how long that leash is.

Canterbury University Associate Professor Ursula Cheer was very good on the legal side of suppression and contempt, but admittedly less clear on the tools of the Internet. She emphasised the truth that many legal people are not as clued up on social network programmes as they would like to or need to be, just as some bloggers and social networkers are ignorant of the law surrounding what they can and cannot publish. The former group don't think the horse has bolted - the latter think the horse bolted some time back. Bernard Hickey brought up what I thought was a good suggestion in that the two groups get together informally and discuss some of the issues raised, believing that the legal people and the technically savvy people, including online journalists, were "talking past each other". The question they should work towards agreement on is this: Where is the horse?

David Farrar also spoke. He was the only speaker who was not a journalist or a lawyer. He started off by discussing the prominent entertainer whose name was suppressed, and how he has seen the name on TradeMe, Yahoo Answers, and MSN NZ. I also found it on the front page of a certain Twitter search. As Farrar was talking about this suppression, and how angry he gets when people get away with breaching suppression on blogs, what did he do... he breached suppression to those with eagle eyes after telling everyone how he viewed the man's Facebook site. Oops. He also raised good points regarding what is actually a breach - a link to another site, a hint, a pointer to another site that the name is accessed. Many in the legal fraternity believed that nearly everyone under the age of 30 know who this person is, not so many over that age. I spoke to two law students during the lunch break, both were internet savvy, both were interested in Internet issues to do with suppression and contempt - both under 30 and both had no idea who this entertainer was.

The entire forum was videoed and will be available. You should be able to find it by googling it sometime.

Social media conference

There's a social media conference in Wellington in April. Weird thing about the advertising for this is that the site has "connect to us" badges you should be able to click to link into their Facebook, Flickr and Twitter sites. Like, social media. Try clicking them. Their badges aren't links.

You'd think the social marketing advocates would get that right.

However, their sponsors are linked. That's important, isn't it. If you're keen to go, check out their huge discount. If you want to shout me, get in touch!

hattip @problogger