Dongola, January 06 (Darfur24)
A criminal court in Dongola, Northern State, has fined a man convicted of insulting the head of the Sovereignty Council and army commander, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, ordering a six-month prison sentence if the fine is not paid.
The ruling has raised concerns over the use of criminal legislation to prosecute opinions expressed online, amid warnings that such measures could further restrict freedom of expression.
According to the Northern Now platform, Judge Mohamed Taj El-Din Fadl El-Sayed of the Dongola Criminal Court convicted Al-Tayeb Mohamed Omar Hamad and ordered him to pay a fine of two million Sudanese pounds, with a six-month jail term in the event of non-payment.
The platform said the verdict was issued in case No. (1959), registered on December 21. The court ruled that a Facebook post written by the defendant—describing al-Burhan as “half a man and half a leader”—constituted a violation of Article 26 of Sudan’s Cybercrime Law.
Sudanese courts have recently seen a rise in cases related to electronic publishing and social media commentary, amid growing debate over the balance between cybercrime legislation and freedom of expression.