I read this piece of news a few days ago and have been waiting to see how accurate it was as most of the major mainstream media avoided reporting it for some reason. Alas, a Jordanian computer science student has been sentenced to two years in prison by the State Security court for supposedly insulting HM King Abdullah during a chat with a friend on MSN Messenger. There are so many things that render that last sentence dangerous that it’s not even funny.
First, the fact that it’s the 21st century and Jordanians are still being tried for lese majeste – a law so archaic that it begs to reason why any nation would dare continue to use it and still promote itself as progressive – is beyond me. If anything, this is one of those laws that world history has proven to be pretty damn useless and ineffective. It doesn’t stop people from insulting the country’s ruler, in fact it encourages critics to do so (as is the case in Morocco these days), and more over, it solidifies the idea that one lives in an authoritarian state.
Second, the State Security court prosecuting a university student for something he said on a chat room? Not only does this erode the credibility and undermine the perceived legitimacy of this judicial body, but the same court that tries people for treason should not be sentencing citizens for the criticisms insults they inflict.
Third, I’ll just put aside the fact that MSN Messenger is apparently being monitored by the mukhabarat aside and thank the good Lord that I’m not a chat kind of person.
Lastly, there is perhaps some irony that it is a computer science student at the center of this mess. Ten years ago, King Abdullah came to power as the “IT King” – promoting the IT sector and encouraging young students to go in to the field like there was no tomorrow. Even promises were made that these students would find jobs in a thriving industry upon their graduation. Ten years later and of course none of those promises have been realized vis a vis the state, however, students are still entering the field, graduating, and working in a sector that is likely to become part of the backbone of the economy in the near future – no thanks to the government. So there is perhaps some irony that after all is said and done, it was a computer science student that the state has chosen to prosecute. I perhaps would not have minded as much had he been a philosophy major.
There is also a little bit of irony in the fact that these past few months have seen a rise in the number of state officials being present online, especially on Twitter and Facebook – as detailed in a recent article on 7iber. Yet, as liberal as their choice to be online is, they remain strongly entrenched within a system that will prosecute its citizens for what they say online.
The timing of the case is also quite interesting as we started this year off with a controversial ruling on a court case that saw one citizen being prosecuted for something he said online. Moreover, HM Queen Rania also very recently launched another online initiative to encourage tourists to come to Jordan.
I hope that this post is not taken as a suggestion or even as an act of encouraging Jordanians to, God forbid, insult the King. Heck, I don’t think anyone should be insulting anyone to begin with. But then again, I don’t think anyone should be sentenced to two years in prison by the State Security court for doing so.
Perhaps the most dangerous outcome of this case is that it will likely solidify notions held by certain proponents within the state who have been pushing for placing limits on free speech online.
Update: This post was spreading a bit on twitter today and someone tweeted something that I thought perfectly articulated my frame of mind in 140 characters, so I thought I’d share it…
@Aboosh: no1 condones insulting the King, but the extent of online monitoring is violating the basic privacy rights of citizens
welcome to the new publications law 🙂 who was it that was saying that insults to the king was not included in the law? was it that Iyas mouth piece of a guy? HA!
well actually what is surprising to me is the fact that they can have used that law in prosecuting him. in that case one of the requirements is for it to be publicly available or publicly distributed which leads me to think that it wasn’t on IM and i’m inclined to think that way since the only mention of IM is in the english post you linked to (a sensationalist post at that)…
So here is the question, Under what law would the court prosecute someone who have made a statement in a private setting?
“Third, I’ll just put aside the fact that MSN Messenger is apparently being monitored by the mukhabarat”
This is what bothers me the most. Someone from the government needs to provide an explanation. How dare they? What is this 1984?
I know you will jump on my throat and ridicule my opinion, but mind my french, isn’t it the king’s fault here? Is he absent from the country and what happens in it? Doesn’t he have a divine right to change the constitution in whichever matter he sees right and he is above law? And I’m here quoting the constitution of Jordan.
Why doesn’t the IT King show up here and set those laws to where they belong? Or is it time to understand the true totalitarian nature of the Jordanian regime?
[edited by blog administrator]
This is outrageous. I think that the officials have to make a statement, clarifying what really happened. Because if what happened is really a sentence based on chat logs! God help us all and god curse the ones responsible for the arrest.
Does any one know him personally.
@Omar: apologies for editing your comment but please respect the commenting policy on this blog which is designed to protect both yourself and I, while keeping the level of debate civil. i believe we have the right to have a critical eye, but to be proactive citizens we should also push for high-minded debate and avoid stooping to low-level insults. thanks.
@bambam: i’m not actually sure what law was used here but the assumption is lese majaste simply because that’s what he went to jail for specifically and that’s what that law is intended to do (sometimes reduced to a fine). so im not sure what role the press and publication law played here, or if that court ruling from january was put in to play, which i doubt. i don’t think the state security court abides by the same legal framework set by court rulings from the cassation court (someone correct me if i’m wrong please).
you pose an interesting question regarding the private settings. i think the reliance is more on tip offs…
@farah: the year or the book? 😉
News like that makes me feel safer expressing my thoughts among closed groups offline than online. Not because i have revolutionary opposing thoughts, but because i dont know where the boundaries are and what are the laws protecting me. In Jordan it seems that technology is working better for the government to enforce its 18th century laws rather than for the people to move forward.
it is the kings right to monitor and judge whom ever he sees appropriate ..for his country’s own shifty we live in this country in peace because of his efforts ,we live our lives, drive cares and have jobs because of his Majesty enrollment of this country .. don’t forget there is two sides for every story .. we live in a very democratic country witch gives the people the right to tell the government what ever they feel like through there Representatives that they vote for, chose by democracy and appointed .its your right to say your opinion and defend who you feel like but don’t judge a whole country’s government on a one side based story .
thanx for writing about this 🙂
i never thought that actualy such things could happen !!
monitoring chating programs :S that sucks big time .. although somehow I guess its a very difficult thing to do … i am not an IT person .. but can a govenment actually monitor all chats thats going on all over the country .. probably abroad as well lol .. or maybe thy do have a list of things not to be said .. and when ever its been written they could know the person behind it ( i think thats possible )
although i would like to read that list of words .. haha i think it would be a hilarious one 😀
and 2 years for few words .. thats alot !!
Oh bugger – they monitor MSN…wow thats really f-upped.
Although I shouldn’t be surprised…whether its your email, your blog, your facebook account, your phone, your tweets, MSN, skype or anything else you do online, I’m pretty sure that its all being stored somewhere and will be referred to the minute some idiot believes you have stepped out of line. For those of us who are active online, that means they can pretty much know everything about you.
Where I am surprised is the fact that they actually have the capabilities and resources to monitor our chats…as it has across the world, the IT revolution started with the security services.
@Nas … I guess i was right with my intuition that the msn thing is a fabrication and the entire context of the case is different when it comes to the setting of the “crime” (check here )
this also explains that the case was based on a witness testimony, and they are using the guys computer systems as sources of evidence. now that does not mean that communications are monitored but at least that would mean they are not used in court (hint: private browsing everyone!).
Regrettably, this is a giant step backwards for the country. Does anyone know if the person in question was in fact being monitored (not sure if technically an MSN chat can be monitored locally) or someone tipped the powers to be that he has insulted the king? I would imagine that if he was chatting on MSN within a chat group and an intelligence officer posing as a civilian or an informant was taking part in the chat they could have been the ones tipping off the authorities. Otherwise, I hope that someone with tachnical know how can enlighten us more about this!
ok a separate note for the ones that are curious about whether someone or some gov’t can listen in to their chat traffic…
The short answer to that question is mostly yes.
All chat messages are sent in clear text format and can be read by anyone, any company with the smallest shred of decency and sense of privacy would maintain a record of all the traffic that occurs on its network (and they should tell their employees about that, most don’t though). In general it ends up being pointless since most conversations end up lacking a huge deal of context.
Unless … you encrypt your communication through the use of encrypted IM clients like Gaim and its encryption plug in or simp lite.
But… this case is not about someone having a private chat and someone listening in but it seems to be about posting in a jihadi forum which takes it from the private to the public domain… still very alarming non the less
@Dena: well, to begin with, i don’t think that it’s the king who personally monitors! to be honest, despite directives from up top, the average citizen has to deal with those at the bottom.
second, while much of the country’s progressive status quo can be largely attributed to the king’s vision and pursuits, i would not go so far as to deny the average jordanian his basic human rights as guaranteed by both the jordanian constitution and the universal declaration of human rights, which jordan is signatory to. no one, in any position of power, can deny those rights to any jordanian citizen.
third, one cannot trade these rights for a violation of other rights. i am not willing to sacrifice my right “to drive”, as you put it, for the right to speak.
fourth, your depiction of jordan being a “very democratic country” because jordanians can tell their government anything through elected representatives is, at best, folly. the lower house of parliament represents a small and effectively powerless fraction of the entire jordanian state. and when that fraction exists through a fraudulent election process, then it is non-representative of the people. when that fraction can be dissolved constitutionally by a single authority, then it is effectively powerless.
thanks.
@bambam: thanks very much for the link. it helps clarify a few more things about this case.
After watching a racist anti-islam talk show on the german most popular state’s channel and the boiling sentiments manipulated by a group of charesmatic and arrogant 3rd class writers and leaders like the zionist Hynrik Broder and co. i needed a pause ,,, the irony is; reading this entry was the FIRST thing i did it was like a very cold shower on such a hot day ,,, it reminded me of the privileges we have in Europe and that home is no paradise
thank you from Bordeaux
Dena is being sarcastic,right? I sure do hope so.
Other details from the father of the guy: http://ar.ammannet.net/?p=64562
He claims that his son was tortured and the whole neighborhood intimidated Junta style!The other interesting fact is that the guys has been in prison for almost 6 months and we hear about it now.. People need to be empowered in ways that make them heard. It is amazing how such story remained hush-hush until the guy was sentenced!
On a side note, why do we still have a military court trying civilians?
I don’t think the Spirit Police can manage to spy on MSN messenger. I mean, facebook is easier to hunt down. If they really did monitor MSN messenger, I’d be in jail. Or, in that case, my father since I’m a minor.
أنا لساني طويل
ÙÙŠ Øدا يكلبشني؟
This is very disturbing.
Nothing gives a monarchy and an establishment more legitimacy than a benign leadership that accepts free thought and criticism, and addresses it.
If our country is serious about its efforts of modernization and development, then we must accept these charades as a thing of the past. The king’s memorable interview at Davos describes how some of the people surrounding him have the “tsk” attitude, preferring the “old ways” over change, reform, and modernization. It seems that our judicial branch today is acting as a prime example of such roadblock to reform. The clock is ticking, and real change is required in the judicial branch, a paradigm shift, a perspective change, some modernization.
I understand the concept of a separation of powers and its frequent upsides. But if I may suggest, it would be certainly helpful if the king annulled this decision, and if the king influenced our judicial policy.
But there is another issue that is concerning here,
The pieces of news seem to be slightly conflicting and misleading. “Bareed”/”E-mail” seems to be suggested, and in that case we are seeing severe violation of privacy. Messenger/MSN is another, and in that case this is a more serious violation of privacy. But then there’s “‘3orfat al dardasha”/Chat rooms, and these are public spheres of sorts. I’m also interested that the State Security Court decision refers to “إثارة النعرات”, as this references preaching instead of a private conversation.
If ihe wasn’t preaching, then its even a bigger issue. Our overreactions and our negative stance against free speech.
A man I truly respect, Adnan Abu-Odeh, previous advisor to kings Hussein and Abdullah, among other titles, was similarly convicted for “إثارة النعرات”. Though Abu-Odeh was pardoned by the king soonafter. However, I am very concerned by the methodology and approach of our judicial branch to free thought.
Lest me remind you that days ago it was announced that we had no more intention to censor books or ban them. And that only libel and misinformation was to be addressed by civil lawsuites. What happened?
These days, it seems that the government, king, and institutions can say one thing, and the judicial branch says another.
“welcome to the new publications law 🙂 who was it that was saying that insults to the king was not included in the law? was it that Iyas mouth piece of a guy? HA!”
Eyas is with an E btw. I didn’t understand what ‘mouth piece of a guy’ meant, perhaps I choose not to.
But on the serious issue here, there is no “new publications law”, and the government has done 0 to materialize the Cassation Court’s ruling. So I stand by what I say.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that the security court used the press and publication law to support their ruling. And I am sure they didn’t.
All evidence in the case point that the student was not tried as a journalist or editor, but as an individual. The ruling would have been the same if he opened the topic with an undercover taxi driver.
In this issue, we as Jordanians are restricted not as journalists but as citizens.
I was never saying things were dandy, and you can go back and read everything I said. I simply ask that WE DO NOT MISATTRIBUTE THINGS. This is not related to the press and publciations law. IRREGARDLESS of whether that court ruling happened, this student would have been sentenced and jailed anyways. People were jailed for this before and after this happened.
Now we can just complain that this happened over the internet. Or we can be serious and complain that this happened, period.
@ Muhanned ,,, i listend to the audio ,,, its emotive
Sorry to post three times in a row, but:
@bambam: “So here is the question, Under what law would the court prosecute someone who have made a statement in a private setting?”
That would be قانون العقوبات, first published in the Official Gazzette in 1960.
http://www.lob.gov.jo/ui/laws/search_no.jsp?no=16&year=1960
Check article 150.
(5) الجرائم التي تنال من الوØدة الوطنية أو تعكر الصÙاء بين عناصر الأمة
المادة (150)
كل كتابة وكل خطاب أو عمل يقصد منه أو ينتج عنه إثارة النعرات المذهبية أو العنصرية أو الØض على النزاع بين
الطوائ٠ومختل٠عناصر الأمة يعاقب عليه بالØبس مدة ستة أشهر الى ثلاث سنوات وبغرامة لا تزيد على خمسين
There are others I believe.
Good post. Just like the old days. Keep it up?
the only thing i can think of is … if these monitoring bodies put in place were so thorough as to find and filter out a conversation that had a mention of Royalty…what makes us so sure that all our video camming sessions, our private and intimate chat with relatives and loved ones are also not falling under the same magnifying glasses.
The update added to the article articulates my very exact notions… No one condones insulting Royalty… but the fact that MSN chats are being monitored is a little too much.
Reminds me of speaker at the last Amman Tech Tuesday (@AmmanTT on twitter) who had a 10 minute speech about the erosion of privacy… he actually said “privacy is dead”… So are the dreams of that comp. sci student who now has to spend 2 years in jail for an MSN conversation.
Do you think it’s possible that once you’re born in Jordan a chip is installed in your brain cells to monitor what you think??!!
This is very alarming, it makes you really ponder on what’s left of freedom of speech after journalists and now MSM users are being monitored and punished.
Let me have a new version of the song Honesty by Billy Joel: “Privacy is such a lonely word, Jordan’s goverment will snoooooop, Privacy is hardly ever found, and mostly what I need from you. (to my government whom I love and cherich and will hail on msn, twitter, facebook, even in the shower; Yeah Right!)
Bottom line, everything is picture perfect in this country, we’re fine…:( Dectatorship at its best.
MSN* (an honest mistake made by passionate reaction towards your excellent post).
P.S: Remember the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland? Off with their heads! (I find this relevant to our discourse for some reason).
You should listen to @Ed .
I don’t know if what the student said was a real insult or a negative opinion.. what I know is that the state has to focus on promoting the culture of civilised dialogue and tolerance among the young generation.. and this starts from school curricula.
At the end of the day, it is definitely impossible to monitor all what thousands of people say on msn!!
One more thing, I guess the student is one of those politically active leftists, and that’s why his/her msn account might have been previously monitored by the mukhabarat.
I find it drastically disturbing …. that once a fallacy has been made its cemented in peoples heads…
The case was not built using MSN chat logs! The MSN part was reported in a foreign (z-rated publication) and its a complete fabrication on their behalf…
@Eyas the key part of the “كتابة وكل خطاب أو عمل” implied in it the public rather than private consumption of those material and hence its just the same as being part of the publication law which gives the goverment the write to consider electronic exchanges as “publications” to deal with the fact that people online don’t need a license to publish their works.
@bambam: So is it a forum post or something of the sort? If so then I can totally see how the existing laws justify it as “public communications” (not saying that it is justifiable in absolute terms, but relative to the law).
And in terms of whether or not its a “publication”, the thing is, the punishments listed in the press and publication law are much more lineant and are usually monetary fines. The punishment law includes things like this.
But the thing is, and if we want to take what the government has told us seriously (and in this area I do), online communications, internet forums, websites, and blogs are not as of now, and have no intention of becoming “publications” under the press and publication law. My understanding is that the press and publication law extending to the internet is meant to address news sites such as a Ammannet, Ammon, et cetera. A blog offensive to the person of the king or others, or guilty of other ‘crimes’ is punishable as a citizen by the punishment law.
Another point of interest is article 195:
المادة195-
1- يعاقب بالØبس من سنة إلى ثلاث سنوات كل من :-
أ-ثبتت جرأته بإطالة اللسان على جلالة الملك .
ب-أرسل رسالة خطية أو Ø´Ùوية أو إلكترونية أو أي صورة أو رسم هزلي إلى جلالة الملك أو قام بوضع تلك الرسالة
أو الصورة أو الرسم بشكل
يؤدي إلى المس بكرامة جلالته أو ÙŠÙيد بذلك وتطبق العقوبة ذاتها إذا Øمل غيره على القيام بأي من تلك الأÙعال .
ج-اذاع بأي وسيلة كانت ما تم ذكره ÙÙŠ البند (ب) من الÙقرة (1) من هذه المادة ونشره بين الناس .
د-تقوّل أو اÙترى على جلالة الملك بقول أو Ùعل لم يصدر عنه أو عمل على إذاعته ونشره بين الناس .
2- يعاقب بالعقوبة المنصوص عليها ÙÙŠ الÙقرة (1) من هذه المادة إذا كان ما ورد Ùيها موجهاً ضد جلالة الملكة أو
ولي العهد أو Ø£Øد أوصياء العرش أو Ø£Øد أعضاء هيئة النيابة .
And article 196 refers to “التØقير” in general, without quoting whether its written/public/anything. 198 refers to publishing any writings that are offensive to (some big list). 195 and 196 are points of interest as it is absolute irregardless of the medium.
—
I have read briefly that such anti-king speech was done in some sort of jihadist or al-Qaeda affiliated website or forum. If that is the case, then I’d withdraw many of my concerns on privacy, censorship, etc. I would still of course be concerned on the fact that this violates basic rights of freedom of expression, but I’d be a little conservative in criticisms, because if it was a jihadist website, then the nature of the speech might be critical enough to warrant it, so I don’t know, we have to learn more about this.
—
I do think that any limitations on speech and thought are bad and harmful. However, in connection to “the press” and the intellectual development of the country, I cannot see the existence of these laws as a problem; as the intellectual conservation may continue, and critical investigation can take place, etc. But these laws ARE used to restrict thought and intellect, but I believe that to be a problem of interpretation with the judicial branch.
***
Again here I allude to Abu-Odeh, who writes magnificently on the policies of the late king Hussein on the issue of Transjordanians and Palestinians, arguing most of the time in support of the king’s policies. Yet, for simply mentioning such sensitive issues, he was found guilty of enticing ethnic tension (though pardoned later). This is our problem. The oversensitivity in the judicial branch, and their strict interpretation of the law (or over-interpretation).
When we consider an investigation on the budget of the government defamation, and a critique of the policies of a leader “إطالة لسان”, and the discussion of a sensitive issue to raise public awareness as “enticing tension”, then we have a problem in how we impelement our law.
wow what have i been missing?
It is 2006 all over again, when that young 22 year old Egyptian guy was sentenced to 4 years in jail for defaming Hosni Mubarak… It was the era that bloggers started self sencosship… I thought we finally moved pased this, but aparently Jordan functions in a way that constructs and then destructs… shame!
Why the disturbance and why people are really shocked in here?
I am really amazed of the replies in here stressing on the fact that this wasn’t happening before!
It happened in reality with will known Jordanians figures .. and unfortunately we seem to have a very short memory. who hasn’t heard of Tojan El-Faisal or Ahmed A. El-Abbadi?
Seems to me like we are creating the image the suits us and then we try hard to enforce such an image thinking that we are the one who give legitimacy to our own lies.
The constitution does protect the king from being insulted but it doesn’t protect any Jordanian from being insulted by the government. It doesn’t protect a Jordanian from being taxed day and night and for sure it doesn’t grant him/her any rights and services for the taxes paid.
For a moment and while reading most of the replies I thought people in here are speaking of a case that took place in Norway and people are questioning the Norwegian constitution.
Take it easy guys, this is what we had, what we have, and what we’ll have till the end of time.
Cheers.
Why the disturbance and why people are really shocked in here?
I am really amazed of the replies in here stressing on the fact that this wasn’t happening before!
It happened in reality with will known Jordanians figures .. and unfortunately we seem to have a very short memory. who hasn’t heard of Tojan El-Faisal or Ahmed A. El-Abbadi?
Seems to me like we are creating the image the suits us and then we try hard to enforce such an image thinking that we are the one who give legitimacy to our own lies.
The constitution does protect the king from being insulted but it doesn’t protect any Jordanian from being insulted by the government. It doesn’t protect a Jordanian from being taxed day and night and for sure it doesn’t grant him/her any rights and services for the taxes paid.
For a moment and while reading most of the replies I thought people in here are speaking of a case that took place in Norway and people are questioning the Norwegian constitution.
Take it easy guys, this is what we had, what we have, and what we’ll have till the end of time.
Cheers.
“we live in a very democratic country witch gives the people the right to tell the government what ever they feel like through there Representatives that they vote for”
geez even Brits wont say the above about the UK!! whats wrong with some people…
The boy’s still in jail, his dad claims his confession was obtained under torture. He’s been in jail for god only knows how much while his lawyer says THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE THAT CONVICTS HIM! Not even on a computer anywhere! Why are we all acting like some fancy online activists if we don’t organize something to help that boy! The whole country must know about his story. He must be freed bel 5aaaaaaawa!!!
We can’t even have piece of mind on MSN these days, DAMN THIS COUNTRY AND EVERY COUNTRY LIKE IT! OUR INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT is ruining the country, they control everything and we’re talking about democracy here?! The whole country must know about this story and we all should cry out loud like what his dad did crying tpday on the radio begging the king!! The situation is messed up right now!!