UAE online activist sentenced to 2 years in prison

An online activist in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been sentenced to two years in prison for violating state security in his Twitter messages.

On Monday, Waleed al-Shehhi was given the sentence plus a fine of 500,000 dirhams ($137,000) for tweeting in May about the trial of 94 people who were accused of attempting to overthrow the country’s political system.

Shehhi had reportedly used his Twitter account to call for the release of prisoners he believed had been detained solely for their support of democratic reforms in the country.

The Emirati Center for Human Rights reported that state security authorities arrested Shehhi following the Twitter posts and held him for 10 days in a secret prison before transferring him to a jail in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE tightened its laws on online criticism of the state last November, when President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a decree on combating cybercrimes.