Tayseer Najjar

Tayseer Najjar was a Jordanian journalist who was convicted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and given a three-year prison term for violating the country's defamation law. He was sentenced under Article 29 of the United Arab Emirates cyber crime law, by posting comments on the social network Facebook expressing support to armed groups in Gaza and criticising the UAE's support of Egypt's decision to destroy Hamas tunnels in the 2014 Israeli aggression on Gaza. Tayseer was due to be released on 13 December 2018, and was facing a fine of AED 500,000, equivalent to US$136,000. Tayseer's sentence was extended six more months because he was unable to pay the fine. On 12 February 2019, Najjar was released from prison and returned to his home country, Jordan. His fine was pardoned.