Manama: A court in Bahrain has sentenced nine defendants to three months in jail for posting tweets offensive to a “sisterly country.”
The mobile phones used by the suspects to post their remarks were also confiscated by the lower court.
One defendant pleaded guilty and asked the court for leniency, arguing that he was a university student. However, the other eight denied the charges.
The case was referred to the court by the public prosecution following reports by the anti cyber-crime department that nine people used social networks to post remarks offensive to an Arab leader.
The investigators were able to identify the suspects who were later questioned by the public prosecution and subsequently charged.
The court is scheduled to look into five more cases of posting offensive remarks against another country on April 28.
Bahrain and Kuwait have adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards bloggers who attacked other countries, insisting they would not allow anyone to attempt to harm their foreign relations.
Several Kuwaitis were arrested after they posted negative comments upon the death of Saudi King Abdullah on January 23.
The authorities rounded them up and warned that foreign offenders would be deported while Kuwaiti nationals would be jailed.
