Cyber threats in KSA on the rise

(MENAFN- Arab News) An informed source at the office of the attorney general said death threats or cases of extortion on social media sites (like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) are considered offenses that fall in the category of electronic crimes. The law for cyber crime was promulgated by a royal decree in March 2007. Article 3 of the law stipulates that anyone who threatens or extorts a person through the social media will be punished with one year of imprisonment and a fine of up to SR500,000. The penalty will be applied even if the media through which it is carried out is legal. The source, who declined to be named, said that any person who receives a threat through social media should report the matter to the police and produce evidence to that effect, in the form of a copy of the tweet or the message or any other proof. If the identity of the person behind the threat is known, he or she will be questioned and interrogated. If it is unknown, he or she will be found out and their location determined. Once apprehended, and the responsibility of the act confirmed, the person will be referred to the prosecutor for investigation. Recently, Muhammad Al-Saieedi, a professor of jurisprudence at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, received death threats on Twitter after he posted several tweets on Al-Qaeda. The person threatening Al-Saieedi called himself an "assassination expert." Al-Saieedi said: "For the last 23 years I have been looking for one action that Al-Qaeda has done for the benefit of Islam and Muslims, but there is none." Before he threatened Al-Saieedi, the "assassination expert," whose account on Twitter contains three tweets only, had threatened Lutf Allah Khoajah. He tweeted: "I know you, and I know where you live and I know where you pray. I know a lot about you. You must stop attacking the Mujahideen and delete these posts, or else.." Abd Al Muhsen Al-Sirdawi, an attorney, said that the use of technology in threats or extortion is punishable by law. "This is a common phenomenon on social sites and it should not be taken lightly. The public and the government agencies must stand together in fighting these crimes that are on the rise in our society," he said.