The Beirut Publications Court issued a ruling affirming that freedom of the press and media is a basic human right, and the cornerstone of protecting freedoms and democratic societies. The ruling addressed the great importance that freedom of expression has in any democratic society, as it is a fundamental pillar and a necessary condition for its progress and prosperity.
However, the ruling, which was issued in the context of the trial of the Jordanian writer Saif al-Din Da’na, who holds American citizenship, and the journalist Ibrahim al-Amin, in his capacity as the responsible director of the “Al-Akhbar” newspaper that published the article subject of the complaint, held that the article “contains disgraceful descriptions and a direct violation of honour, dignity and personal regard, and goes outside the framework of political criticism or expressing an opinion, and falls within the scope of public insult and intended defamation, and is considered a violation of public order and the legal rules that govern freedom of expression and its limits.”
The court considered that “the actions were committed publicly, intentionally, and in an insulting manner, requiring accountability, and removing the defendant from any legal protection granted to freedom of opinion or criticism, since what he issued was not an opinion, but rather an explicit insult, slander, and defamation that is punishable by law.”
The court, headed by Judge Rima Khalil and with the membership of the two advisors, Judges Nadine Doumit and Hala Abi Haidar, found Da’na guilty and fined him six million Lebanese pounds, with the possibility of replacing the fine with imprisonment for one day for every ten thousand pounds in the event of non-payment. It also obligated him, jointly and in solidarity with Al-Amin and the “Beirut News Company,” to pay an amount of two hundred million Lebanese pounds to the plaintiff, which is the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Lebanon, as compensation for the damages it sustained.
The details of the case go back to the year 2016, when the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Lebanon filed a complaint immediately after Al-Akhbar newspaper published in March 2016 an article by Saif al-Din Da’na entitled: “Then Nasrallah Came: About the House of Saud and the League of Monkeys.”
