The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court, at its hearing today, examined the case of accusing the presenter, Wassim Youssef, of spreading hatred and racism in society, and decided to postpone the case to the March 18 hearing.
During the session, the prosecution charged the defendant with the charge of publishing information to promote programs and ideas that would spread hatred and racism in society and harm national unity and social peace, and demanded 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 attorneys, to defend and plead, 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 the defendant, if he wanted to request the adjournment of the case to appoint a lawyer to defend him, but the latter refused and confirmed his desire to defend himself, so the court told him that by defending himself, and adhering to not appointing a lawyer, the case will be reserved for judgment So, the accused adhered to his opinion and expressed his agreement to reserve the case for judgment.
The defendant 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 present to answer, not to ask questions, with his demand to look at the podium when speaking because he is in the court, not in a TV program.
The accused 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 United Arab Emirates, and that he never intended to incite hatred, strife, or racism, in addition to that 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 obscurantism 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 Emirati people.
For its part, the court’s committee repeated the defendant’s choice between postponing the appointment of a lawyer to defend him, or reserving the case to a judgment, so the accused adhered to his desire to reserve the case for the ruling, while the prosecution asked the court’s authority to defer it, as the defense authority of the plaintiff asked the civil right to allow it By submitting a note and documents confirming the charge against the complainant.