A
Palestinian man who clicked "Like" on a Facebook status criticising a
Palestinian Authority (PA) official has been sentenced to six months in
prison.
Anas
Ismail, 29, of Salfit, near Nablus, was found guilty of "libel and
slander." Ismail is the second Palestinian to be imprisoned for Facebook
activities in the past few days.
He
was sentenced to prison on the same day another PA court in Bethlehem
sentenced a Palestinian journalist to one year in prison for sharing a
photo on Facebook that compared PA President Mahmoud Abbas to a villain
and spy of French colonial authorities in a Syrian drama.
The
Palestinian Authority police on Friday night released another
Palestinian, Mamdouh Hamamreh from prison, one day after he had been
sentenced to one year in prison for insulting PA President Mahmoud Abbas
on Facebook.
On
Thursday, a PA court in Bethlehem upheld a one-year prison sentence
imposed earlier on Hamamreh after convicting him of publishing a photo
on Facebook comparing Abbas to a villain and traitor who appeared in a
popular Syrian TV production.
Hamamreh was the second Palestinian to be imprisoned for insulting Abbas on Facebook since the beginning of this year.