Journalists freed in the UAE

DUBAI: A decree by the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates has saved two journalists from jail, the official WAM news agency reported on Thursday.

The journalists from English-language daily Khaleej Times were acquitted by an appeal court after being sentenced to two months in jail for libel.

The court ruling followed a decree by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum that journalists should not be jailed for their work.

"The Dubai Court of Appeal ruled innocent the journalists Mohsen Rashed and Shimba Kassiril from the Khaleej Times newspaper," WAM said. Sheikh Mohammed said in the decree that measures other than jail sentences could be taken against journalists who had committed a particular violation, WAM said.

Rashed and Kassiril were sentenced by a court in the emirate of Dubai on September 23, the day before the decree was issued. WAM said the two men were accused of defaming a woman in a June 2006 article written by Rashed and cleared for publication by Kassiril, then editor of the paper.

Kassiril and Rashed were convicted of libelling an Iranian-born Dubai woman by reporting on June 28 last year that she had sued her husband, who had then been imprisoned.

In 2004, a Dubai court handed down jail sentences of six months and three months respectively against a Kuwaiti editor and a Saudi editor, also for defamation.