Abu Dhabi Criminal Court Convicts a Woman for Invading the Privacy of a Book Fair Attendee

The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court has sentenced an Arab woman accused of arousing public opinion on social media, invading the privacy and verbally assaulting a participant at the book fair held recently in the country, by broadcasting a live video on a social media network.

The court decided to punish the offender with six months' imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 dirhams for the offence of invasion of the victim's privacy, with deletion of all photos and recordings, confiscation of the device used, permanent closure of her Twitter account, and a fine of 10,000 dirhams for the offence of insult. The court granted a stay of execution of the prison sentence for a period of three years from the date on which the judgment becomes final, and her expulsion from the country once the sentence has been served.

The Abu Dhabi Public Prosecution had taken the necessary legal measures in the case after the video was posted and picked up on several social media platforms, showing the accused verbally assaulting the victim, and challenging his presence at public events due to a previous conviction handed down against him in a case abroad.

Following the investigation, the Abu Dhabi Public Prosecution indicted the woman in its decision to refer the matter to the competent criminal court on charges of arousing public opinion, invasion of privacy on social media networks, insult and defamation, and requested her punishment in accordance with the articles of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Combating Rumours and Cybercrime.

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