Man gets jail term for installing hidden cameras in Dubai beauty salon

Afghan employee set up system so he could receive footage direct to his mobile phone.

DUBAI // A beauty salon employee who installed hidden cameras in a spa room has been sentenced to six months in jail by Dubai Criminal Court.

A woman called police on December 5, 2014 to report the salon in Al Muraqqabat, the court was told.

“She said she headed to the salon for a Moroccan bath and when she took off all her clothes she noticed cameras in the corner. She immediately got dressed,” testified A A, a 47-year-old policeman.

A A added that officers called the employee, Afghan M S, 25, to ask him who installed the cameras.

“He said he did so to keep an eye on other employees,” said A A.

The woman who spotted the cameras, D A, 23, from Syria, told police that a female employee told her about the cameras but only after she had taken off her clothes. The woman saw a video clip of her naked when police showed her the recordings.

M S denied a sexual assault charge in court in November last year and said that he only meant to watch employees after being ordered by his manager to install the cameras, which he could access through his mobile phone.

“I have never seen what was recorded,” he told judges.

He was sentenced to jail and will be deported after serving his term.