UAE jails Jordanian for 10 years for criticising Jordan’s gov’t

HRW says Ahmed Etoum was sentenced in October solely for peaceful Facebook posts on corruption, inequality in Jordan.

The decision by a United Arab Emirates court to sentence a Jordanian resident to 10 years in prison in October for criticising Jordan’s government was based entirely on a series of peaceful Facebook posts, a rights group has said. Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged authorities in the UAE to immediately release 46-year-old Ahmed Etoum, saying he was convicted solely for his “peaceful criticism of the Jordanian royal family and government”. In a statement on Thursday, the US-based rights group said the court convicted him in October 2020 of using Facebook to commit “acts against a foreign state” that could “damage political relations” with that state and “endanger national security” inside the UAE.