Jail, fine for guilty as cyber crime law begins on Jan 12

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KUWAIT CITY, Nov 26: The Prosecutor General Advisor Dherar Al-Asousi has issued a decision to set Jan 12, 2016 as the first day to begin the implementation of Law No. 63/2015 relating to cyber crime. He explained Media, Information, and Publishing Affairs Prosecution Sector is the authority responsible for investigating relevant cases as contained in the law.

A source disclosed the National Assembly recently approved the law containing several chapters and approximately 18 articles of penalties ranging from various lengths of prison terms and values of fines. He stated the maximum penalty is in Article 11 which stipulates “the offender shall be liable to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment with maximum fine of KD 50,000 and minimum of KD 20,000 if found guilty of opening a website for a terrorist group or an individual or posting information online on any information technology media.

The suspect will be found guilty of the offense even if the action was taken under the guise of facilitating contact with any terrorist group leader or members or promoting their ideologies, financing their activities, publicizing the method of manufacturing explosives or any other materials used for terrorist activities.” He said the penalties cover prison terms and fines for anybody found guilty of using social media for money laundering, hacking computers and electronic data systems with the intention of formatting, destroying, revealing confidential or professional data or information, and falsifying official documents, banking data and deliberately destroying electronic files relating to medical tests and diagnosis.

The penalties also include breaking down or hacking websites and revealing secret information, as well as creating websites for immoral activities, prostitution or using it for obtaining credit card data to steal from people’s accounts, human trafficking, and illicit drugs.

 Citizen jailed: The Criminal Court sentenced a citizen, Fuhad Al-Ajmi, to two years in prison with hard labor and ordered him to pay KD 1,000 to suspend the implementation of the ruling. Case files indicate the Public Prosecution charged Al-Ajmi with repeating the statement of former MP Musallam Al-Barrak at a seminar in Erada Square under the slogan, “We Will Never Allow …” in addition to uttering words deemed offensive to the entity of HH the Amir. It is worth mentioning that the Public Prosecution has asked the court to impose the harshest punishment on Al-Ajmi — five years imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Nasser Salem Al- Heyd, overturned the verdict of the First Instance Court which had earlier sentenced media presenter Ayesha Al-Rasheed and media producer Khaled Al-Rashid to three years in prison and ordered them to pay KD 1,000 each to suspend implementation of the ruling. According to the case files, the Public Prosecution charged the accused with spreading false information that Iranian General Qasim Suleimani entered Kuwait when the country experienced power blackout several months ago. The defendants denied the charge. The presenter said she merely asked about the controversial news, while the other defendant maintained that he had nothing to do with the content of the news. Both of them were acquitted by the higher court.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff

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