Man fined Dh10,000 for spying on ex-wife

Dubai Courts found an ex-husband guilty of spying by fixing a listening and tracking device in his divorced wife's car and sentenced him to six months in jail and ordered him to pay Dh10,000 for invading the woman’s private life.

The Court also ordered the information solution company to pay Dh100,000 fine and another Dh100,000 to be paid by its manager for selling and offering the spying device without obtaining the necessary permissions from Telecom Regulatory Authority.

Consultant Ismail Ali Madani, Head of Funds Prosecution who investigated the case said that in 2009 the victim had bought a car from her husband with whom she had trade deals.

In 2010, her husband asked her to get the car’s windows tinted from a specific outlet. She followed his advice and left the car for a whole day.

“After that I noticed that my husband knows about conversations I had with my friends and my whereabouts all the time. After a whole year of suspecting that he was somehow listening to my conversations and tracking me, I headed to the car agent to get it checked out. The car agent did not find anything."

The wife obtained the information about the company that had installed a listening and tracking device in her car from her husband’s computer.

She called up the company and was told that they have fixed the device underneath the car’s steering wheel upon the husband’s request.

The victim immediately complained to authorities. The ex-husband and the company’s manager did not plea guilty in court. The ex-husband claimed that he had fixed the device when the car was in his possession and before selling the car to his wife. They were still married at that time.

The manager of the company which specializes in security devices for tracking denied knowing about the need to obtain a permission from the concerned authorities.

Technical reports proved that the device that was fixed in the victim’s car allowed people from other end to eavesdrop on her conversation and track the vehicle via a SIM card.

The Court of First Instance found the ex-husband and the company’s manager guilty.The Court of Appeal upheld the sentence.

Individuals were warned from using any sort of tracking and listening devices.

The judge also stressed that having matrimonial relationship does not permit a husband or a wife to invade and violate the other partner’s privacy.

He asked the public to know the law regarding the use of wire and wireless telecommunications devices and to abide by those laws.

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