Gulf | Saudi Arabia
Use of mobile phones for porn may get jail and lashes
Anyone using camera phones to distribute pornography may face up to 1,000 lashes, a 12-year jail term and a 100,000 riyal ($26,670) fine under a proposed Saudi law, newspapers reported yesterday.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 April 17, 2005
Anyone using camera phones to distribute pornography may face up to 1,000 lashes, a 12-year jail term and a 100,000 riyal ($26,670) fine under a proposed Saudi law, newspapers reported yesterday.
The proposed law comes after a Saudi court in January sentenced three men to jail and up to 1,200 lashes each for orchestrating and filming the rape of a teenage girl using telephones equipped with cameras and distributing the footage via the telephones.
The kingdom's consultative 150-member Shura Council was expected to endorse the new law soon, local newspapers said.
The state telecommunications regulator earlier this year warned against using third generation (3G) mobile phones for "immoral" purposes.
3G mobile phones can access the Internet, which is strictly controlled in Saudi Arabia, and receive high-quality video clips from adult sites.
A ban was recently overturned on the import and sale of mobile camera phones. Religious leaders said they are used to invade privacy, particularly of women.
The use of camera phones has triggered scuffles at weddings and girls schools after handsets were used to film and distribute pictures of unveiled women, newspapers have reported.
Under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic rules, women must cover their heads in public.
Saudi Arabia's rapidly growing telecoms sector is gradually being opened up to competition, ending the monopoly of state-owned Saudi Telecommunications Co.
In Kuwait, a parliamentary panel yesterday approved government proposed legislation laying down jail terms for people using bluetooth technology in mobile phones to take or circulate pictures without the subject's consent or for sexual blackmail.
MP Waleed Al Tabtabai, secretary of the panel dominated by Islamist lawmakers, told reporters the prison penalty was adopted due to the "dangers the growing phenomenon poses to the Kuwaiti society."
According to the Bill, people who use the technology to take pictures of others without consent face up to two years in prison or a fine of $6,800 (around Dh24,820).
Those who use it to circulate such pictures face five years jail while using bluetooth pictures to blackmail others into adultery carries a penalty of 10 years in prison, Tabtabai said.
The legislation will be effective after it is approved by parliament and signed by the emir.
Kuwait is a conservative state where alcohol and discos are banned.
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