Yesterday, the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court examined the case of accusing the program's host, Wasim Yusuf, of spreading hatred and racism in society. Yusuf refused to hire a lawyer, and he insisted on defending himself. The court decided to postpone the case to the March 18 session to present the prosecution.
During the hearing, the prosecution charged the defendant with the charge of disseminating information to promote programs and ideas that would spread hatred and racism in society, and harm national unity and social peace, demanding that he be tried in accordance with Articles 1, 24, and 41 of the IT Crime Law.
The civil attorney submitted to the court, a special agency from him to several lawyers, to defend, plead, and submit requests, and others regarding the case, certified by the notary, and the court’s body attached them to the case papers, while the defendant decided before the court that he did not appoint a lawyer to defend him.
During the session, the court asked a question to Youssef, whether he wanted to request the adjournment of the case to appoint a lawyer to defend him, but he refused, and confirmed his desire to defend himself, so the court told him that he was defending himself, and adhering to not appointing a lawyer, the case would be reserved for judgment, The accused adhered to his opinion and expressed his agreement to reserve the case for judgment.
Yusuf began his defense of himself by asking a question to the court, in which he said: “Where are the charges?” What prompted the court to draw his attention to being there to answer, not to ask questions, with his demand to look at the podium when talking, because he is in the court and not in a TV program.
Youssef denied the accusation against him, pointing out that the evidence is on the one who claimed, and affirmed that his program through which he speaks is a global program, and not a program limited to the UAE, and that he never intended to raise hatred, sedition or racism, in addition to his talk about Sahih Al-Bukhari, intended to raise the position of the Holy Qur’an from any other book, and he also decided that the word “obscurantists” that he used in his tweets on the social networking site “Twitter”, was meant by “ISIS” and the “Muslim Brotherhood”, and was not intended by the people Emirati.
The prosecution requested the court to defer it, and the defense of the civil right plaintiff requested permission to present it with a new memo and documents.