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| Arabia |
| Saudi Arabia jails three lawyers for tweets criticising judiciary |
| 2014-10-28 |
| [Al Ahram] A Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n court sent three lawyers to prison for terms of between five and eight years on Monday for criticising the country's judiciary and justice system in messages on Twitter, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Since the 2011 Arab uprisings, the US ally has grown increasingly intolerant of any dissent or criticism aimed at the government, the country's ruling Al Saud family or the official clergy which provides judges for its Sharia Islamic courts. The three lawyers, who were not named by local media, were convicted of prejudicing public order through tweets which contained opinions against the ruler, and expressed contempt for the judiciary and undermined it, SPA reported. Reform of the kingdom's judiciary and legal system is a main battleground between arch conservatives and relative liberals. It is seen as important by both human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activists who want to improve legal safeguards for defendants and foreign investors who want sentencing to be more predictable. King Abdullah announced changes to the judicial system in 2007, including non-Sharia training for judges, the introduction of specialised criminal courts and a means of officially recording verdicts, a prelude to establishing precedent. Conservative judges, holy mans and some officials in the Justice Ministry have strenuously attempted to block the reforms, however, because they see them as undermining Islamic law, liberal lawyers and other legal sources say. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Far be it for me to criticize someone who wants to put lawyers in jail... |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-10-28 08:24 |
| #1 Coming soon to a courtroom near you. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-10-28 08:02 |