Court hears evidence against Nabeel Rajab

Manama : The prosecution yesterday presented evidence against Nabeel Rajab, accused of spreading false information about the Kingdom, a judicial source said.

The prosecution submitted a report that confirmed Rajab was in charge of his Twitter account where allegedly offensive tweets were posted, the source said. 

The defence, for its part, reiterated its case that Rajab was not in control of his account at the time the tweets were posted.

The court had ordered the appointment of an expert from the interior ministry’s cyber crimes unit to determine who was operating Rajab’s Twitter account.

The hearing has been adjourned to February 21. 

The detective who led investigations into the case of Nabeel Rajab will give evidence on that day. 

Rajab is accused of spreading false news and rumours and inciting propaganda during wartime, which could undermine the war operations by the armed forces and weaken the nation. The defendant reportedly published also remarks termed offensive against the Ministry of Interior. 

According to the indictment list, he alleged that the Ministry of Interior is torturing prisoners, humiliating them, denying them from education and degrading their dignity.  He, as per the same, depicted the measures taken by the security forces during the Jaw Prison riots as torture. 

Rajab, who had been pardoned for health reasons in 2015, was rearrested in June and is on trial on a list of charges, including insulting a state institution and Saudi Arabia in online postings.

Court had last month ordered Rajab freed pending the trial on charges of spreading false information.

But the prosecution decided to keep Rajab in custody pending questioning in another cyber crime case on a similar charge of spreading false news about the situation in the Kingdom.