A renowned journalist has been sentenced to prison over tweets he posted on social media in his country.
Journalist, Faisal Hayyat
A Bahraini court has jailed a journalist for three months over a tweet deemed insulting to religion, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.
According to AFP, the journalist identified as Faisal Hayyat, who is also a blogger was convicted on Tuesday for insulting a “religious symbol and group,” the watchdog said.
The report further revealed that the blogger has been in detention since October 9, the last time he tweeted saying that he had been summoned by police for investigation.
Although the content of the tweet is not clear, it was however discovered that his detention might have been related to some tweets he posted on October 8, denouncing Muawiyah, the first caliph of the 7th-century Umayyad Caliphate, who is despised by Shiite Muslims for a conflict with their revered Imam Ali.
The Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom has been shaken by unrest since security forces crushed protests led by crowds of its Shiite majority demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.
As a result, scores of Shiites have been jailed on charges of involvement in the unrest and others have been stripped of their citizenship.
The country has been criticiszed for clamping down on innocent citizens and killing some in the process.