Facebook Rant Lands US Man In UAE Jail

blindbat writes While back home in the U.S., a man working in the United Arab Emirates posted negative comments about the company he worked for. Upon returning to the country to resign, he was arrested and now faces up to a year in prison under their strict "cyber slander" laws designed to protect reputation.

Comments

basically how the UAE works

[Trepidity]

It's an old-school feudal state mixing in a little bit of a hot modern idea, corporate oligarchy. The businessmen and sheikhs (many of whom are related) run the place, and jailing foreign workers if they get inconvenient is one of their main tools to retain control. Usually you don't hear about it because most of the workers aren't from the USA.

Re:basically how the UAE works

[cheesybagel]

UAE? Isn't that where they take your passport while you work there?

Re:basically how the UAE works

[wisnoskij]

So just like America then?

Re:basically how the UAE works

[Trepidity]

Yeah, that's common across the region; Saudi Arabia does it too. Seems a bit unnecessarily old-fashioned, since with computerized passport control these days you could keep someone from traveling by just flagging them in the computer, no need to actually confiscate the passport. But maybe keeping the physical passport is a better intimidation tool?

Re:basically how the UAE works

[colin_young]

It's not old fashioned. It allows a private corporation to restrict the freedom of their labor, while the government has plausible deniability and can turn a blind eye to the practice.

Re:basically how the UAE works

[Anonymous Coward]

And then you try leaving the country with a passport with no visa or entry stamp. Be prepared for a few hours of questioning.

Yes, I had that happen to me. I'm from an EU country that allows its citizens to have two passports. I traveled to Algeria for a week to help a customer install some telecommunications equipment, and had a visa. On arrival, the local manager took my passport (literally just took it out of my backpack while I was not paying attention), and told me I was needed for two weeks instead of one. I told him to fuck himself and booked a flight back home the next day. Upon exiting I had to explain why my passport didn't have an entry stamp or visa, and I simply told them that I had lost the passport but that my country allowed for two so I could freely travel. Took me half an hour to clear customs.

The manager was fired and my passport was Fedex'd back.

Re:basically how the UAE works

[rwa2]

Wow, cool story. Still, the cynic in me wonders if that manager was fired because he didn't manage to take both of your passports :P

Two things

[gurps_npc]

1) Going to another country simply to resign is not the sanest action.

2) We really need a clear International consensu that governments do NOT have extra-territorial jurisdiction. Actions taken in one country should abide by the laws of that country, not any other country - even if it affects the other country. Any country that refuses to abide by this simple rule (I'm including my own beloved United States which routinely violates this simple legal concept.), should have punitive trade restrictions placed on them.

When I'm in New York state, I have to abide by NYS laws, not New Jerseys. Similarly, when I am in the US, I should abide by the US laws, not any other countries.

Re:Two things

[fey000]

1) Going to another country simply to resign is not the sanest action.

2) We really need a clear International consensu that governments do NOT have extra-territorial jurisdiction. Actions taken in one country should abide by the laws of that country, not any other country - even if it affects the other country. Any country that refuses to abide by this simple rule (I'm including my own beloved United States which routinely violates this simple legal concept.), should have punitive trade restrictions placed on them.

When I'm in New York state, I have to abide by NYS laws, not New Jerseys. Similarly, when I am in the US, I should abide by the US laws, not any other countries.

Sounds like a good idea, but how does that work when the internet is involved? Does Facebook count as everywhere? What about phone calls? Mail?

It's a tricky system to get right.

Re:When in Rome

[Penguinisto]

That doesn't make the "law" any less unjust.

That said, It was kind of a stupid thing to do on his part. Should have resigned first, gone back home, *then* get hot on Facebook (though IMHO glassdoor.com would have been a better place to dump his invective.)

I just hope for his sake that ... nevermind; just RTFA'd. Dude went ballistic.

PS: summary sucks - the guy could wind up in prison for *five* years, not one.

The first rule of facebook

[avandesande]

Nothing important should go on facebook!

Re:When in Rome

[Anonymous Coward]

So? Try to go to Australia, break US law and then go to the US.
Heck, you might not even have to go to the US to be in trouble, US law enforcement might just come and get you.

Most nations doesn't like when people break their laws. Try to go to some nation where law isn't enforced, for example you could join up with ISIS and kill a bunch of civilians, then go to a western country where murder is illegal. It is very unlikely that they will let things slide just because you were on someone else's turf while the crime was committed.

If you still think US is any different, ask Snowden or Assange.

Re:When in Rome

[g0bshiTe]

Other than copyright or piracy exactly which US law could you violate while in Australia and then be arrested for upon arrival back in the US?

Re:When in Rome

[Kinthelt]

Other than copyright or piracy exactly which US law could you violate while in Australia and then be arrested for upon arrival back in the US?

Sending money to Cuba.

Everywhere

[nospam007]

I live in Luxembourg, Europe and last month we jailed a guy for 9 months for a Facebook rant.

http://www.wort.lu/en/luxembou...
---
(CS/mth) Two Luxembourg nationals on Thursday were found guilty of sending death threats to immigrant rights activists Serge Kollwelter and Laura Zuccoli, with one of the men sentenced to nine months in prison.

The pair were found guilty by a Luxembourg City court of publishing xenophobic comments and threats in a discussion feed on Facebook on March 31 last year.

A 54-year-old defendant was sentenced to nine months in prison, while his 45-year-old co-defendant was served a nine-month suspended sentence, under the condition that he will not be caught for a similar offence over the next five years. ...

Re:Everywhere

[Jahta]

I live in Luxembourg, Europe and last month we jailed a guy for 9 months for a Facebook rant.

http://www.wort.lu/en/luxembou... ---

(CS/mth) Two Luxembourg nationals on Thursday were found guilty of sending death threats to immigrant rights activists Serge Kollwelter and Laura Zuccoli, with one of the men sentenced to nine months in prison.

Well ranting and threatening to kill somebody are two different things. The former is not normally illegal. The latter is illegal pretty much everywhere, regardless of whether you do it on the Internet or not.

Re:When in Rome

[Anonymous Coward]

Running Megaupload ? (OK that was NZ)

Re:When in Rome

[Phreakiture]

Maybe not Australia, but how about Russia? I suspect that Dmitry Sklyarov has maybe faded from our collective memory.

Quick summary: Sklyarov is Russian. He lived in Russia, where he worked for a Russian software company writing Russian software. In Russia.

One piece of Russian software he worked on while working for his Russian employer in Russia is something that would have run afoul of US copyright law, but it was out of US jurisdiction because the software was written by a Russian working for a Russian company in Russia.

Then Sklyarov made the mistake of coming to DefCon, where he, a Russian, was arrested for writing software that violated the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which is out of jurisdiction in Russia, where he lived (as Russians tend to do) and worked for a Russian company writing Russian software, in Russia.

In short, he committed no crime because the law that was applied to him is out of jurisdiction.

Re:When in Rome

[linuxrocks123]

Thanks for bringing this up. Minor correction is he was charged but not convicted.

Re:When in Rome

[kamapuaa]

Well, the software was sold in the US. And, charges against the dude were dropped. And it was 14 years ago. So I think it's understandable that it's no longer a burning issue.

Re:When in Rome

[Immerman]

Well, that would be a crime committed by whoever was selling the software someplace where it was illegal, not the guy who wrote it someplace where it as legal.

Re:When in Rome

[sjames]

And he spent significant time in foreign jail far from home anyway. Far too much time considering that the charges were obviously inappropriate.