Blasphemy -> 3 years' imprisonment

[qatarperegrine]

From today's Gulf Times (courtesy of Jon):

Jail for blasphemy
By Nour Abuzant
A Doha court has handed down a Lebanese man three-year imprisonment and subsequent deportation for uttering blasphemous words.
During the trial, the court heard how the accused, a foreman, made the offending comment to one of his workers at a worksite, on May 1, 2007.
The prosecution said the man uttered the blasphemous words after a worker failed to carry out his instruction. He also fired the worker.
Two other workers who were present at the site at the time of the incident testified against their boss.
The accused denied the charge and said he sacked the worker because he did not follow the orders.
Delivering the judgement, the court said that based on the witnesses’ testimony it was convinced that the accused uttered the “blasphemous remark.”
The crime was particularly serious as the accused was a Muslim, the court said.
The convict has appealed against the ruling.

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Thoughts:

1. WTF!
   
2. I wonder what, specifically, he said?
   
3. W. T. F!

Comments

[lynn-thomas.livejournal.com]

Totally WFT, but also makes me think conspircy against a boss no one liked :/

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. But that doesn't justify why the judge went along with it!

[lynn-thomas.livejournal.com]

Maybe the judge felt the guy was being cheeky or something; still crap though

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

"All I said was, 'That piece of fish was good enough for Jehovah!'"

Seriously. Wow.

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

"Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!"
"Stop! You're only making it worse!"

Seriously bizarre! My question, beyond the obvious ones, is were he a native Qatari (and not a foreign Lebanese) would they still ALSO have deported him?