HoR passes controversial law to combat Cybercrime

The spokesman for the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) Abdullah Blehiq said on his Facebook page on Tuesday that the HoR members had unanimously voted to pass the bill of “combating cybercrime”.

The HoR also passed on Monday the cyber transactions bill and modified the age of presidential candidacy to 35. It reviewed the combating cyber crime bill, which led to some controversy even before being published to the public in its final draft.

Social media activists circulated leaked photocopies of the bill, saying it takes Libya backward even to worse times than those of Gaddafi’s reign, alikening it to the policy of North Korea’s regime and accusing the HoR of policing the general freedoms of people.

The leaked bill shows various punishments for cyber crimes (the bill is titled electronic crimes: meaning things that happen online) with jail times ranging to five years and fines of huge sums of money for “speaking ill of normal people or even public figures (by texts, voice or video).”