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How do you protect yourself from impersonation crimes?

Impersonation phenomenon has recently spread, where a person impersonates another person, whether through social media or in fact, as such crime has become more prevalent in our recent time through the information network of the Internet, such as if an ordinary person arrests a person driving a car and tells him that he is a traffic officer and asks him for identification papers such as (License – Car Registration Form). Moreover, as an example of impersonation through social media is that a person impersonates another person and takes his data and puts his picture on the Instagram or Snapchat sites and uses the same name and data in order to mislead people that he is the actual owner of the account.

Therefore, there is no doubt that the criminal’s objective of impersonation is to commit another crime, and to make material or moral gains from impersonation of such personality or capacity. Let us assume that a person impersonates another person who is known to the public in order to defraud others, steal their own account, or offend certain people. We find this in certain people who send a website to a person in order to steal his account on social media or enter a bank’s card data and transfer the amount to his account. It happens also that the individuals get to trust such people, so the impostor collects one million Riyals within a month by stealing their data.

Accordingly, the Qatari legislator has, within Cybercrime Prevention Law No. (14) for the year 2014, regulated this crime in article (11), and it is punishable by imprisonment for a period not exceeding (3) years and a fine not exceeding QR (100,000) (One hundred thousand Qatari Riyals), or by one of these two penalties, such as using the information network or one of the information technology means to impersonate a natural or legal person, or to be able, through the information network or an information technology means, to seize for himself or for others a movable money or a document or sign it, by fraud, and by taking a false name, or by impersonation of an incorrect capacity.

How do you protect yourself?

  • Make your user identification numbers and passwords for your bank accounts and registered mail accounts as secure as possible.
  • You should not reply or click on any anonymous link and do not reply and give out any personal information whether it is mobile number, email or bank account information.
  • When you discover that you have been impersonated, you must hurry up and take a photo of the impersonator’s page and file a report either through “Metrash” application or personally go to the cybercrime department. Accordingly, the relevant authorities will take the necessary measures to arrest the impersonator.
  • When you are exposed to impersonation actually on the ground, you must refrain from giving any information about yourself, and try to obtain any data on the original identity of the impersonator, such as taking his name, the number of the car he is driving, or any information that may be useful to the police in reaching him, and quickly go to the nearest police station and give a report about the impersonated person, so that the relevant authorities can take the necessary measures to arrest the criminal.
  • How to file a complaint through Twitter program:
  • Login to the impostor’s account and click on the three dots on the left side of the screen.
  • Click on Report.
  • Click on the fourth option (Pretending to be me or someone else).
  • Choose the fourth option “Another person”
  • Write the name of the original owner, not the impostor.
  • Press on send a report to Twitter.
  • How to file a complaint through Metrash (2) program:
  • Log in to Metrash program.
  • Click on contact us.
  • Click on the economic and electronic reports.
  • Click on the electronic crimes option and fill in the required fields. If you are the owner of the account whose identity has been impersonated, you will be contacted by the Department of Electronic Crimes, and then they will ask you to attend and hand over the mobile phone, and bring the original passport in order to take the necessary measures.
  • Make sure to submit a report through Twitter program as well as Metrash (2) in order to take the necessary measures against the impostor, and to protect others from being hacked into their accounts.

Author: MR. AL-HUSSEIN NASR\ Legal Consultant

“International Criminal Court (ICC) The Situation of Palestine”

The International Criminal Court began operations on 1 July 2002. It is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal. The Court is participating in a global fight to end impunity. Governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute, the ICC is the world’s first permanent international criminal court.

The International Criminal Court does not aim to replace national criminal courts, but rather to complement them, it works to achieve peace, stability, and justice throughout the world, complementing the role of national courts within the territories of any state, and its scope is not limited to a specific place, but rather is global.

The jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with this Statute with respect to the

following crimes:

(1) The crime of genocide.

(2) Crimes against humanity.

(3) War crimes.

(4) The crime of aggression.

1) Genocide: Any act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, and those acts are:

(a) Killing members of the group.

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction

in whole or in part.

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

2) Crimes against humanity: Any of the following acts constitutes a “crime against humanity” when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

(a) Murder.

(b) Extermination: ” includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population.

(c) Enslavement: means the exercise of any or all the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power while trafficking in persons, in particular women and children.

(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population: means forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law.

(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law.

(f) Torture: the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions.

(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectively on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court.

(i) Enforced disappearance of persons: the arrest, detention, or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time.

(j) The crime of apartheid: is inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.

(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

3) War crimes: grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, any of the following acts against persons or property protected by the relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention:

(i) Wilful killing.

(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments.

(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health.

(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.

(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power.

(vi) Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial.

(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement.

(viii) Taking of hostages.

In addition to other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable to international armed conflicts within the established scope of international law, including:

  • Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking a direct part in hostilities.
  • Intentionally directing attacks against civilian sites, that is sites that do not constitute military objectives.

The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory and what mentioned in the Rome Statute.

who can refer a situation to the court?

According to the Rome Statute, a state party to the Rome Statute has the right to refer a case in which one of the crimes stipulated as mentioned above, and the United Nations Security Council has the right to refer crimes as well, in addition to the start of an investigation by the Prosecutor of the Public Prosecution Office of the International Criminal Court related to one of those crimes.

The Public Prosecution Office of the International Criminal Court opened an investigation respecting the Situation in Palestine. According to the statement, the court may exercise its criminal jurisdiction in the case in Palestine, and that the territorial scope of that jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Chamber decided, by a majority that Palestine fulfilled the requirements of statehood under public international law. The Chamber was otherwise unanimous in its view that Palestine is a State Party to the Rome Statute. Moreover, The Prosecutor announced that she was satisfied that: there was a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Members of the Israel Defense Forces (“IDF”) committed the war crimes of intentionally launching disproportionate attacks in relation to at least three incidents which the Office has focussed on wilful killing and wilfully causing serious injury to body or health, and intentionally directing an attack against objects or persons using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions.

Summary of Preliminary Examination findings:

https://www.icc-cpi.int/itemsDocuments/210303-office-of-the-prosecutor-palestine-summary-findings-eng.pdf

Long Awaited Law.. Freelance Contract

Human life has been continuously developing and growing, in line with the necessity of modernity whenever it needs to solve a problem or find an easier way to save money and effort. Especially in our modern era; Where the speed of communications and transactions; Giving the priority to the electronic aspect based on the Internet in dealing with the direct personal aspect; This has contributed greatly to the decline of what people are familiar with in the affairs of their lives gradually from the traditional that does not serve interests compared to the unbridled development that the whole world is going through.

As in the past, in many jobs, trades, and techniques, people no longer need the presence of a worker or employee within the paid institution; the worker may have done the work required of his home, café, public square or commonplace of business, via a mobile computer; the employee may even work for several employers and institutions in any country or multi countries simultaneously; He doesn’t worry about each other, and at the same time he doesn’t have the bond of individual contract employment that has prevailed over the old period in employment relationships.

The general circumstances of lockdown due to the new Corona pandemic in 2019; was a significant impact on the increasing trend of many employers towards get their work is done through freelancers’ employees; Some professions had a larger share than others; blogging mobile phone programming, websites, and design; and advisory services generally in law, engineering, enterprise, management, etc. This method saved employers with expenses and costs required by the employee’s or employee’s presence in the enterprise a period; The freelance has also benefited from saving transportation, time, and dress expenses if he or she works from his or her home.

There is no doubt these transactions are subject in their general principle and order to the rules on which most contracts are based; which begins with the parties to the contract and their address; to inform each party of its role; the address and cause of the contract; The freelancer must know exactly what it was required to accomplish; The duration of that work; And the money the employer will pay to the freelancer, whether hourly, daily or after finishing the work.

The ponderer of these contracts may find them to overlap between the electronic transactions and commerce Act and the provisions of those contracts; & civil law on the other hand; We may have taken the Labour Act out of this overlap for many reasons; because These transactions are not directly subject to the provisions of the Labour Code, as they have features that are not available and do not conform to those subject to the provisions of the Labour Code; For example, if we take the Qatari Labour Act No. 14 of 2004  (readable with Act No. 21 of 2015 regulating the entry, exit, stay and security of arrivals), provisions are governing such relations; The relationship between employer and worker was originally based on the latter’s presence within the State; According to a residence permit for work; This alone is enough to destroy the idea of a freelancer who can work in more than one place and who, in agreement with her, does not need to be in one place without the other.

Perhaps the exception with which a worker residing in the State of Qatar can work additional work after formal employment with another person with the consent of the original employer and the Ministry of the Interior; The same is the case for certain acts of administration in which a worker is a partner and authorized to sign a company with the approval of the competent authorities of the competent administrative unit of the Ministry of the Interior – per the provisions of articles 16-23 of the Act regulating the entry and exit of residency of immigrants.

Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have sought to legalize the idea of a Freelance employee by creating a digital platform -adopted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development- to assist those who seek their functional independence by registering and adopting them following their respective disciplines; And funds those who need it.

In the United States of America and in particular the State of New York; On May 15, 2017, the Act was introduced through the Bureau of Labor Policy and Standards of the Department of Consumer Affairs and is a representative of the employees of the Government of the City of New York -one of the largest states in terms of the census – by which the Act defines a Freelance employee as (Any individual hired by a chartered party to work as an independent contractor to provide paid services.).

Freelancers officers work in many different areas in New York State, among the most common for freelancers employees; as Video & film-related work -graphics and web design- contracting and home-photography-translation; But there are some kinds of professions that are not protected by law as sales delegates; lawyers and medical professionals; They are excluded from the definition of self-employed; The Act has several advantages; The most important of these is the need to write the contract; freelance are guaranteed the right to file a complaint and to lawsuit against an employer if he fails to pay for freelancer on time; & the right to freedom from exposure and discrimination by the employer, etc.

A question may arise as to how to resolve a potential dispute between an employer residing in a State; & the freelance resides in another State, it is the rules of international jurisdiction and what is known as the rules of attribution that determine the whole issue according to its facts and circumstances. If the jurisdiction of the employer is foreign legal, such as companies, associations, enterprises, etc.; It applies to transactions in which the law of the State in which such persons have taken the status of head of their administration; Unless it engages in its main activity in Qatar or does not have any actual principal status, Qatari law is applicable.

On the other hand, the form of the contract applies to the law of the country in which it was made; The law governing the contract may be applied in its substantive provisions; The National law or the Common of Contractors may also be applied. Coming soon will be a legal and legislative renaissance that will regulate this freelance in the form of laws and in explicit and clear texts that will protect the parties to the relationship from abuse by each other; Given the reach and expansion of this type of transaction throughout the world over the web.

Author: MR. MOHANAD BABIKER\ Senior Legal Consultant

Liability for writing or posting about poor customer service experience from a service provider

(Zaid) has purchased a spare part from (M) Company, which specializes in importing spares parts from (Moon) zone; but unfortunately, that part was not in conformity with the required standard specifications; thus, it became unusable after seven days from its date of purchase from (M) Company. Zaid has contacted the officers in the company; however, he did not find the sufficient care and interest, then he posted on the social media about lack of attention he received, and the bad attitude from customer service team. Is writing about (M) Company on social media deemed a deed violating the law?

The criticism deemed as defamation if it reaches the level of slandering and mudslinging. The criminal intention in the calumny, and defamation crime available when the words directed by (Zaid) to (M) Company are heinous by themselves, regardless the motive for directing them. When the words are indicative by themselves to the calumny, and defamation meanings, then the person who said them shall be held accountable regardless the motives that pushed him to them. The law does not require in the calumny, and defamation crime a special criminal purpose, but it is sufficient with availability of the general criminal purpose that is realized when the insulter or libeler posts or spreads the matters that include calumny or defamation, and he knows that if they are true then the insulted or humiliated person shall be punished. There is no doubt that the indecent or curing words shall reach the officers in the company as they are its representatives, and their names relate to it. It shall not be affected in availability of this purpose that the insulter believes the truth of what he has thrown against the insulted person of the libeling, insulting or cursing facts.

There are two kinds of defamation or insult crimes addressed by the Qatari Legislations, the first when is happens in public under article (330) of Penal Law, and the second if it happens in an indirect way under article (329) of the same law. There is another criminal act under article (8) of Cybercrime Prevention Law No. (14) of the year 2014 which is defamation or insulting through one of information technology means.

The prudent and perfect is that people shall resort to the known legal ways to litigate rights whatsoever the easiness or criticality, through resorting to the public authorities represented in the departments, bodies, ministries, police stations, prosecution, courts etc. as they are sufficient and capable to recover grievances to their holders.

Author: MR. MOHANAD BABIKER\ Senior Legal Consultant

the Dismissal for the Employee Due to Breaching Criminal Law

Is dismissal of the employment contract of a domestic worker who has been found drunk by the police, Arbitrary dismissal? Is it permissible for the police to deport him without opening a report and without trial procedures?

The employer may dismiss the employee without warning and without granting an end-of-service bonus in cases listed in the article (61)  Of the Labor Act No. 14 of 2004, an amendment – 2015-2020 – includes, inter alia, that if an employee is found during working hours drunk between or under the influence of a drug, the determination of why the worker should be dismissed for any of the reasons mentioned in the article shall be The foregoing statement is a matter of fact which is within the discretion of trial court only.

As the Domestic Employees Act No. 15 of 2017 is devoid of any direct reference or express provision as provided by the legislator in article 61 of the Labor Code; However, the provisions are circulated article 11, in that the user must respect the laws, customs, social traditions and religious and moral values of the State. Article 16 of the Act allows the employer to dismiss the employee without warning and without granting the employee an end-of-service bonus for the year in which he was dismissed. (Only) If it violates its obligations under Act No. 15 of 2017 concerning, domestic employees or employment contracts, there is no doubt that sugar, especially if it is in a public place, the workplace, or when driving a car, is an express violation of the laws of the State which must be punished.

we think, it seems that per the proper applying of article 16 of Act No. 15 of 2017, denying a domestic worker the end of the remuneration for employment does not extend to the entire period of his or her employment with the employer, but only to that year in which he or she was dismissed; If we say that the worker has been in service for three years; In the last year he was dismissed for violating the provisions of article 11 of the Domestic Employees Act; as for the two years that preceded that last year, the worker deserves to get the end of service bonus

Concerning the powers granted to the police, article 25 of Act No. 21 of 2015 regulating the entry and exit of expatriates and their residence, chapter V of the Act, entitled “Departure, deportation, deportation and return,” stipulates that: subject to the provisions of any other law, the Minister of Interior may issue repatriation order of any expatriate, if there is evidence that his/her presence in the country threatens its security of safety inside or outside its borders, or jeopardizes its national economy, public health, or morals.

So, the removal and deportation of the entrant may be possible, if it is established that his presence in the State is threatened in any of the cases listed in article 25 of Act No. 21 of 2015.

Author: MR. MOHANAD BABIKER\ Senior Legal Consultant

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Overview of the Minimum Wage Act No. 17 of 2020

His highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, promulgated, on 8th of Oct 2020 Act No. 17 of 2020. Determining the Minimum Wage for Workers and Domestic Workers. In a legislative precedent that has not been entrusted in the Middle East as in recent history. The new provisions provide link between workers and their employers; the state of Qatar believes in the need to protect and promote the principle of human rights by protecting the weaker party in the contractual relationship. Particularly the simple majority of workers and domestic workers, in keeping with human and Islamic values.

The Act applies to all workers regardless their nationality and the sector they work in; it also applies to domestic workers, when it referred in its preamble to the Labor Code No. 14 of 2004 and the amended laws; the Domestic Employees Act No. 15 of 2017; the Act designates the category covered by the provisions of the Labor Code referred to as “workers”; while the name “Domestic Worker” is assigned to those who work in accordance with the provisions of the Domestic Employees Act, the law is thus covered by the provisions of a broad class of state workers.

The Act defines the minimum wage as (the lowest amount that workers and domestic workers can receive by this law regardless of their tasks, earnings, or skills levels). In other words, while specifying the minimum wage it did not consider the nature of his work, whether simple or harsh; also, not considered the level of the worker or domestic workers in the performance of his or her duties is as skillful or otherwise.

Moreover, the new legislation did not explicitly provide for specific minimum wage amounts but placed under the purview of the Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs. In turn, a decision establishing the minimum wage shall be issued and reviewed at least once a year to take in consider occasional developments; through and through a committee designated as the “Minimum Wage Commission”, which is competent and tasked with frequently to study and review the minimum wage and to submit its recommendations thereon to the Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs. This means that the minimum wages are not fixed and may change in line with life requirements, considering economic factors; including economic growth, competitiveness, and productivity; and the needs of workers, a domestic worker, and their families, including the justice required by the changes in life and the movement of life.

The Act addresses employers who perform fewer wages to their workers or domestic worker than the minimum established by a decision of the Minister of Administrative Development and Labor.

In an implementation of Act No. 17 of 2020 on the Determining of the minimum wage for workers and domestic workers, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs announced on its official electronic website the applying of the new minimum wage for all workers, effective Saturday, 20th of March 2021, so Companies are required to comply with the minimum wage of QR 1000 at the time of the conclusion of contracts, together with the allocation of an allowance by the employer in the event that the worker or employee is not provided with adequate housing and food, the minimum housing allowance is QR 500 and the minimum food allowance is QR 300, with the obligation to amend the employment contracts.

If natural or legal person violates the provisions of this Act, the Act provides that the Ministry of Labor may suspend the person’s operations that are similar to the operation subject of this violation.

The Labor Code No. 14 of 2004 provides that the employee’s benefits shall not be paid and deposited by a bank operating in the State. The employer shall be liable to a penalty of up to one year’s imprisonment and/or a fine of up to QR 2,000 and up to QR 10,000. In addition, Act 15 of 2017 concerning domestic workers, provides for failure by the employer to pay the employee, the employer shall be liable to a fine of up to QR 10,000.

To sum up, the new non-discriminatory minimum wage will add to the series of major labor reforms underway in the state.

* the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs Main Website:

https://www.adlsa.gov.qa/en/news/Pages/News19032021.aspx

Author: MR. MOHANAD BABIKER\ Senior Legal Consultant