Dubai's Court of Cassation has overturned a lower court's acquittal in a defamation case over a Facebook posting.
The Court of Appeals had acquitted the defendant based on the fact that his post was in a private Facebook group that was not accessible to the general public, according to Khaleej Times .
However, the prosecutor appealed the verdict, arguing that "even if the Facebook page is not accessible to general public, posting derogatory comments defames a person and damages his or her reputation."
Article 20 of the United Arab Emirate's cybercrime law (Federal Law No. 5 of 2012) calls for jail and a fine of between 250,000 and 500,000 dirhams for anyone who "insults or accuses another person of a matter of which he shall be subject to punishment or being held in contempt by others, by using a computer network or an information technology means."
The defendant, who is accused of insulting a woman on Facebook, will now have his case reheard by a new panel of judges.