people holding
© Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters
Undersåtter af de Forende Arabiske Emirater kan blive straffet med op til 15 års fængsel for at udtrykke sympatier med Qatar, advarede Emiraternes justitsminister efter at de arabiske nøglelande har afskåret forbindelse med Doha. Selv at tweete kritik imod de Forenede Arabiske Emiraters anti-qatariske holdning kan blive straffet.
"Streng og resolut handling vil blive taget imod enhver som viser sympati eller nogen form for patiskhed overfor Qatar, eller imod enhver som måtte være imod det standpunkt som de Forenede Arabiske Emirater har taget, hvadenten det måtte være via social medier eller nogen form hvadenten skriftlig, visuel eller mundtlig," fortalte Counselor Dr. Hamad Saif Al Shamsi Arabiske medier onsdag, rapporterede Gulf News.
Kontoret for offentlige anklager sagde at UAE's lov giver mulighed for en straf fra mellem tre og 15 års fængsel til enhver som truer det arabiske lands interesser, den nationale enhed eller stabilitet. De kan også blive idømt en bøde på mindst 500,000 AED ($135,000).


Fifteen nations, led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have severed or downgraded diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar after accusing the Gulf kingdom of supporting terrorism.

The spat was triggered by a report by the Qatari news agency, which cited the country's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as criticizing Saudi Arabia's anti-Iranian rhetoric. The nations later claimed the agency's website had been hacked by unidentified attackers, who then used the access to spread a false report.

The rift sparked concerns among some nations not directly involved in the conflict whose citizens work in Qatar, such as the Philippines. The Gulf nation may potentially face spikes of food prices and other troubles over the transport blockade imposed on it by Saudi Arabia, Silvestre Bello, the Philippines' labor chief, said. Especially if Qatar's only access to maritime trade, through the Strait of Hormuz, is disrupted.

A similar diplomatic rift in 2014 lasted for eight months after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain accused Qatar of undermining their domestic security by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that they consider extremist.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir on Wednesday said Qatar must deliver on the promises it made during the 2014 situation.
"We want to see Qatar implement the promises it made a few years back with regard to its support of extremist groups, to its hostile media and interference in affairs of other countries"
he told reporters in Paris as cited by Al Jazeera.


Jubeir added that Qatar must stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian militant movement Hamas. He declined to specify concrete steps Saudi Arabia would expect from Qatar to end the rift, but said the sea, land and air blockade imposed by other Gulf nations would impose a considerable cost on Qatar.
"We believe that common sense and logic will convince Qatar to take the right steps. The decisions that were made were very strong and will have a fairly large cost on Qatar and we do not believe that Qataris want to sustain those costs," he said.
Saudi Arabia has an active trade blockade against another neighbor, Yemen, where it is using its military in an attempt to restore in power its ally, former President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was ousted from the country by Houthi rebels in 2015. The blockade contributes to a desperate shortage of basic supplies like food and medicine, from which the population of Yemen is suffering.