While there are many more countries where insulting the leader is illegal on the books, the laws aren’t always put into practice. Not so for the countries below, which have all prosecuted offending citizens in recent years.
Here are 7 countries where it’s an offence to offend, and one where it soon might be.
1. Azerbaijan: Up to two years’ “corrective labour”
People could be fined as much as 500 to 1,000 nominal financial units, or corrective labour for up to two years for criticizing or humiliating the dignity of the president.
No one is sure exactly what “corrective labour” is either, but you can bet you wouldn’t enjoy it. If it is a more serious crime, it can be punishable by imprisonment from two to five years.
2. Lebanon: Up to $66,400 in fines
Lebanon’s laws forbid the publication of material that “undermines the dignity of the president of the republic,” which is punishable by a minimum of one month and a maximum of two years in prison, and/or a fine between 50 million and 100 million Lebanese pounds.
The word “publication” does not only apply to newspapers but also extends to new media. In 2014, a Lebanese web developer was sentenced to two months in prison for insulting President Michel Sleiman on Twitter, when he tweeted that the head of state was “politically castrated.”
3. Venezuela: Up to 40 months in prison
Under Venezuelan law, it’s a crime to offend, “in writing, speech or by any other means”, the elected or acting president. If you’re found guilty, you’ll get six to 30 months imprisonment if the offence is considered serious, and three to 15 months if it’s considered minor. Commit the offence in public and you’ll see your sentence upped by one third.
4. Poland: Up to three years in prison
Publicly insulting the Polish president is punishable by up to three years in prison. But the same warning goes for anyone tempted to take a swing at Poland’s foreign guests.
The country’s penal code extends the same privilege to any foreign head of state while he or she is on Polish soil. For instance, during a state visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2005, Polish police arrested 28 protesters demonstrating against him.
In 2006, prosecutors reportedly charged a 45-year-old man with “contempt for the office of the head of state” after he loudly farted at the mention of Poland’s then-president.
5. Turkey: Up to four years in prison
Turkey has some pretty stringent insult laws, and it isn’t afraid to use them. The penal code states that “a person who defames the president of the republic shall be imprisoned for a term of one to four years,” with the sentence to be increased by a sixth if the offence is committed in public.
That goes even if the president has been dead for 75 years: there’s a special law on crimes against Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, which states that “Anyone who publicly insults or curses [his] memory… shall be imprisoned with a sentence of between one and three years.”
6. The Netherlands: Up to five years in prison
Intentionally insulting the monarch could earn you up to five years’ imprisonment or a fine, while the same offence against the monarch’s spouse, the heir apparent, the heir apparent’s spouse or the regent carries up to four years behind bars.
In 2007, two people were arrested for separately calling the then Queen Beatrix a “wh0re,” while in 2012 another two individuals found themselves with short prison sentences for making statements judged offensive to her dignity.
7. Cameroon: Up to $42,260 in fines
In Cameroon, all the bad things you’re saying about the president may very well be accurate; but that doesn’t mean they won’t earn you one to five years imprisonment and/or a fine of 20,000 to 20 million CFA francs.
And while there may be no specific law against it, you definitely want to refrain from saying too much about the president’s wife. In 2010, one author who wrote a book about the First Lady, Chantal Biya and found himself sentenced to two years’ imprisonment after insult charges were filed against him by the Cameroonian state.
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