Online forum administrator sentenced to prison in the UAE

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Only days after we hear about this unfortunate incident, this one takes place, and needless to say it’s much worse:

Earlier this month, on August 8th, Mohamed Rashed al-Shohhi, an online forum administrator in the Emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah (UAE) has been sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of nearly US$ 13,600 (Dh50,000) for content deemed defamatory published by anonymous on the popular forum board he moderated majan.net (suspended).

It has also been reported that the department of e-government services managed to access the forum’s control panel looking for registrants email addresses. And it seems that this has led to the arrest, on August 19th, of a forum registrant, Khaled El Asli.

This isn’t fair or just at all, he shouldn’t be held directly responsible for what gets published on the forum. His only responsibility is removing the comment, which I’m sure he would agreed to get done.

What if one of the authors here post libelous material without my knowledge, does it mean I would have to go through such charges as well?

Crazy.