Five individuals who circulated and published a video online showing Dubai Police carrying out an arrest which went viral on social media have been imprisoned for one month.
One among these was a 28-year-old Pakistani man, identified in his documents as ‘AR’, who worked as a receptionist in a hotel near the Naif area when he witnessed police arresting some women suspected of being prostitutes in June.
A 32-year-old Nigerian woman, a friend of the said prostitutes, was asking people in the surroundings about them when set encountered the Pakistani man, who gave her a video of the arrests recorded through the hotel’s CCTV cameras.
The receptionist confessed to downloading the video from CCTV cameras and sending it to the female charged of Police officer’s testimony.
The woman then forwarded the video clip to two of her female friends from Uganda and Tanzania, who sent the video to others.
Eventually, the video was posted on social media and went viral.
When Dubai Police knew about the video, they launched a probe to track the individuals behind the leak.
The receptionist stated that he allowed the Nigerian female to see the video on a CCTV camera, and she asked him to send to copy.
He stated that he called the hotel manager, who agreed to give the woman a copy. The Nigerian woman confessed to police that she sent the video to a WhatsApp group and shared it with the two other women.
The Nigerian woman stated in official records, “I gave him Dh10 to send me the video through WhatsApp. Later I forwarded the video to a WhatsApp group.”
Two of the other accused women from Uganda and Tanzania confessed to getting the video but rejected publishing it on social media.
Dubai Public Prosecution has charged the Pakistani man, the Bangladeshi as well, as the three women with defaming along with breach of privacy of others online by posting and sending a video of a police arrest to several others.
The location of the Bangladeshi hotel manager is still not found. Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced the five to imprisonment of one month, after which they will be deported.