Five jailed for sharing video of Dubai Police arrest operation

Video of arrest went viral on social media

Five people have been sentenced to jail after circulating and publishing a video of an arrest.

Five people involved in the circulation and publishing online of a video that went viral showing Dubai Police carrying out an arrest have been jailed for one month.

One of those convicted was a Pakistani man, 28, who was identified in documents as “AR”.

He was working as a receptionist at a hotel in the Naif area in June and saw police arrest a group of women suspected of being prostitutes.

When a Nigerian woman, who was a friend of the group, came to the neighbourhood, he gave her footage of the arrests from a hotel security camera.

The woman, 32, sent the clip to two female friends, from Tanzania and Uganda, who sent it on to others. The video was eventually published on social media platforms and went viral.

When Dubai Police became aware of the video, an investigation was launched to track down the people behind the leak.

“The receptionist admitted to downloading the video from surveillance cameras and sending it to the female accused,” a policeman said in official records.

The receptionist said he allowed the Nigerian woman to see the clip on surveillance cameras in the hotel and she asked him for a copy.

He said he called the hotel’s manager who agreed to give the woman a free copy and gave him the passcode for the cameras.

The Nigerian woman admitted to police that she sent the clip to a WhatsApp group shared with the two other women.

“I gave him Dh10 to send me the clip via WhatsApp. Later I forwarded the clip to a WhatsApp group,” the Nigerian woman said in official records.

Two of the other accused women, from Tanzania and Uganda, admitted to receiving the clip but denied publishing it on social media.

Dubai Public Prosecution charged the Pakistani man, the Bangladeshi and the three women with defaming and breaching the privacy of others online by publishing and sending a clip of a police arrest to others.

The whereabouts of the Bangladeshi hotel manager is unknown.

Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the five to one month in jail each, to be followed by deportation.