A Supreme Federal Court ruled the acquittal of a young Gulf man, (a social influencer), from the charge of assaulting and defaming a famous hypermarket through a video clip of a defective product with a mite inside (rotten spaghetti), attributing its verdict to different reasons in this type of case, as it found that the accused He was not ill-intentioned, and he did not intentionally harm the reputation of others. Rather, he believed in what he published that he performs a duty required by Islamic law as a ward to spoil or block an excuse staring at the same person or his money, and performs a legal duty to report a crime or prove a case and help the authorities to perform their tasks, which negates He is charged with assaulting privacy or defamation.
The details of that case started with a young Gulf influencer on social networks filming a video and publishing it through social networks of a spoiled pasta product, which does not conform to the specifications inside the branch of "a famous hypermarket" in the emirate of Ajman, with the intention of saying, according to him, to educate the community and warn the competent authorities, and alert them to The need for rapid intervention.
For his part, a delegate from the famous chain of stores wrote a statement about the young man, and he was referred to the court on charges of assaulting privacy and defamation, and in the first session on August 19, a misdemeanor court in the Emirate of Ajman acquitted the accused, after he showed his video clip of the pasta pasta and sent the clip to The Ajman Municipality, which registered a complaint and took legal measures against the branch, and the court’s conviction that the criminal intent was not according to what was stated in the defense memorandum presented by lawyer Muhammad Saif Al-Hafiti, in which he paid in good faith the complainant’s right and the absence of the criminal intent.
For its part, the Public Prosecution appealed against the ruling before the Court of Appeal, which canceled the previous ruling of the Court of First Instance and ruled to condemn him and fined him 3000 dirhams, and confiscated his phone, after being satisfied that he assaulted the privacy of the store by confessing in the record of reasoning and investigations by the Public Prosecution.
The complainant was not satisfied with the ruling and was challenged by the cassation before the Supreme Court, and the lawyer presented a defense note stating that the Appeal Court erred in the application and interpretation of the law, and pushed in good faith and the absence of criminal intent and the absence of criminal will, stressing that the goal of the complainant in his right was to bring interests to society and ward off evil, and that One of the main pillars of the purposes of Islamic law, namely self-preservation, and the defense stuck to the innocence of his client, while the Public Prosecution stuck to its motives in bringing charges against the complainant against him. After reviewing the defendant’s defenses against the complainant, the Supreme Federal Court ruled that the verdict and acquittal of the charges against him were acquitted, and it based its ruling on the fact that the complainant is aware of his right from the absence of criminal intent and bad faith is not available in the case.
It relied on Article 54 of the Penal Code that “there is no crime if it actually occurs in the fulfillment of an obligation commanded by Islamic law or the law.” And it stated in the merits of its ruling that the act of the complainant in his right to publish through the social network is a favorable and duty of what the Islamic Sharia requires as a ward off spoilers or blocking an excuse Self-preservation, such as reporting a crime, is not an infringement on a person’s privacy.
And the Federal Supreme Court concluded that the elements of the crime of assaulting the privacy of others are not available, refusing to appeal the public prosecution and supporting the first judgment of the court of first instance, stressing that addressing the official authorities to take their actions and warning the public about these products is not an infringement on privacy.
- The young man filmed pasta and sent the video to Ajman Municipality in order to protect consumers.