Qatar's appeals court today upheld a two-year jail sentence for a US national found guilty of "harming" the Gulf Arab emirate on the Internet, the official news agency QNA reported.
Mr Luay Abdulla, an American of Palestinian origin who grew up in Qatar and worked at the foreign ministry, will be deported after serving the sentence.
According to his lawyer, Mr Abdulla was also charged with damaging the name of a "famous personality" in the emirate on a web site called "Rumours", which he was accused of setting up.
The American, whose job at the ministry was to check Internet sites, has denied the charges and insisted he had tried to penetrate and dismantle the Rumours site.
Since the verdict was first handed down in March, Mr Abdulla's friends in the United States have campaigned for his release, pleading his innocence.
The 38-year-old was accused of setting up a website featuring a beauty quiz that listed the emir's wife as one of the choices and arrested on March 5th, 2000, according to Mr Abdulla's friends and supporters.
AFP