Judge to stand trial over tweets

The Supreme Judicial Council in Riyadh has ordered a judge to stand trial for publishing tweets on the social networking site, Twitter, which is a violation of a royal decree and calls for investigation and trial. The judge will be tried on Aug. 5, a judicial source said.
The source said that the council had referred Mohammad bin Abdullah Al-Shaim, a judge in Riyadh’s criminal court and former president of the general court in Sharura, to stand trial after he violated the royal decree which prohibits judges from appearing and participating in media events, or talking to media sources.
The judge published a number of tweets with religious content on his personal account on Twitter. The tweets were monitored by an investigation team following a collective decision by the council.
The source said that following investigations and after confirming the charges, a private investigator was assigned to question the judge about his tweets.
The source said that after a week of investigations, the court made its decision and sent it to the president of the criminal court, which will in turn notify Al-Shaim that the date of the trial has been set for Aug. 5.
He said that it is the first time that a judge is being tried for publishing tweets.
Commenting on demands by some judges and lawyers to set up a separate judicial committee to look into cases concerning judges, the source said: “There is no need to establish a separate judicial committee as the Supreme Judicial Council is competent to handle these cases.
Moreover, setting up an independent judicial council will require extended studies to determine its benefits and drawbacks.”
He added that the Saudi judicial system is independent and neutral. It doesn’t interfere with the rulings issued by judges. “No one can interfere with the work of judges or affect it any way,” he said.
So far, Twitter has been responsible in toppling three lawyers from their positions following investigations by the preliminary committee that looks into e-violations in the Ministry of Culture and Information.
The lawyers have been fined a combined sum of SR1.25 million and prevented from writing or publishing any work under charges of distorting justice and inciting people against the Ministry of Justice through their tweets.