Lower House approves cybercrime bill after Senate amendments

AMMAN — The Lower House on Wednesday approved the amended cybercrime bill as referred from the Senate.

The Senate on Tuesday made some amendments that included replacing "and" in articles 15, 16 and 17 of the draft law with "or" and  permitting judges to choose one of two verdicts (imprisonment or fine) compared with the original bill that allowed for combined penalties, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Senators also reduced the Article 15 fine mentioned in Article 16 to between JD5,000 and JD20,000, whereas the original fine ranged between JD25,000 and JD50,000.

Article 15, as amended by the Senate, provides an option of up to three months' imprisonment or a fine between JD5,000 and JD20,000 for anyone who intentionally publishes or republishes false news online and attempts to tamper with national security and social peace through insults or disparagement.

Article 16 stipulates a term of imprisonment of no less than three months or a fine between JD5,000 and JD20,000 for anyone who intentionally commits digital character assassination.

Article 17 calls for between one and three years' imprisonment or a fine between JD5,000 and JD20,000,  or both penalties for any person who intentionally publishes materials entailing sedition, strife, targeting social peace, inciting hatred, advocating or justifying violence or contempt for religions online.

Senators also removed the phrase "or both of these penalties", in Paragraph C of Article 33, as the section of the text provided by the Lower House stipulated only one penalty, a fine of JD15,000 to JD30,000, for anyone who contravenes the orders of a prosecutor or competent court.