The Court of Appeal of Abu Dhabi acquitted a woman of the nationality of a foreign country from assaulting the privacy of an Arab family who had taken a photograph of one of the emirate's beaches and posted it on the Internet.
The facts of the case, according to the papers, that the first victim reported that an unknown person posted his family photos on Facebook without their consent, and that the page that published the pictures contains more than 4,200 members, which expose his family to defamation, That Facebook account holder is the defendant.
The Public Prosecution has accused the appellant of using the information network to attack the privacy of the victims of "Arab nationality" in other than the authorized cases of photographing them and publishing the pictures on the Internet, and demanding that the public prosecution punish them according to articles 1, 21/1, 3 of the Federal Law Decree No. 5 of 2012 regarding the crimes of information technology
The police suspect admitted that she took a picture of a family celebrating her birthday on the beach in a residential complex and posted the photo on the social networking site Facebook. She denied the accusation and decided that she took the photo because it contained a natural view and was included in the picture. A message about the contamination of the place, especially that the scene contained quantities of garbage.
In August, the court sentenced the defendant to a fine of 150,000 dirhams for the charge of using the computer network to attack the privacy of the victims, and to compel them to pay the due court fees.
The defendant appealed to the judge and explained the defense of the appellant, lawyer Hassan al-Riyami, "during his pleadings" that the accused working in the field of volunteering and that she took a picture of a beach and posted on the site of Merkazah to unite with him as a volunteer to encourage the public participation of children of the center in cleaning the beach as a kind of social responsibility.
"There is no knowledge of the people who appeared in the picture, even though they were not wearing the bathing suit and they were wearing all their clothes," Riyami said. "Their appearance in the picture is purely coincidental," adding that his client was " , Pointing out that the Court of Cassation has already been separated in the issue of privacy in public places, through the provision of photographing a person sleeping in a plane, and decided that the court is a public place and not a private place, which applies to the beach.
The court ruled that the court had balanced between the evidence of evidence and the evidence of denial. The defense of the accused and the suspect included the suspicion of the correctness of the elements of evidence. The court noted that there is a great deal of doubt in the case, especially since the papers do not contain proof that the appellant attacked the privacy of the victims. That it has photographed a public place that is the beach and the victims came in an image, which is contrary to the requirement of privacy provided for in Article 21 of Federal Law Decree No. 5 of 2005, concerning the fight against information technology crimes.
The court affirmed that since the pictures are in charge of a public place that is fixed for all, namely, the beach, and the victims were presented with a picture, it is not an attack on their privacy. The appeal has been made on a valid basis of reality and the law. The appellant's judgment has erred in applying the law. The judgment appealed against the conviction of the appellant and the revocation of the acquittal of the appellant from the charge assigned to it pursuant to article 211 of the law of proceedings. Therefore, the court ruled in its presence to accept the appeal in form and in the matter of revoking the appealed sentence and revoking the acquittal of the appeal, Tham.