A court ruling was issued in the Emirate of Al Ain fining a foreign resident of 250,000 dirhams and deporting him to his country because of an e-mail that insulted one of his cousins.
A fine of 250,000 and deportation from the Emirates
Al Ain Court of First Instance issued a ruling against a young man holding the nationality of an Arab country, to pay a fine of 250,000 dirhams and to be deported from the country.
A young man insults his cousins in an e-mail
The facts of the case revolve around the outbreak of severe family disputes between the cousins, which led to one of them insulting and uttering obscene words against his cousins through a social networking program, through his account, which led the victims to open a criminal report of the incident against the defendant, and a referral was made to him. The accused to the court, which in turn proved the defendant guilty.
The penalty for insulting through social networking programs
Legal advisor and researcher Khaled Al-Mazmi said: Insulting and slander through social media programs is considered a severe penalty, according to Article 43 of Federal Decree-Law No. (34) of 2021 regarding the Law on Combating Rumors and Electronic Crimes, and is punishable by imprisonment and a fine of not less than 250 thousand dirhams and no more than 500 thousand dirhams, or one of these two penalties, for anyone who insults the other or ascribes to him an incident that would make him subject to punishment or contempt by others, using an information network or information technology means.
Punishment for insulting an employee
Al-Mazmi added: If the insult or slander is committed against a public employee or assigned to a public service on the occasion or because of the performance of his work, this is considered an aggravating circumstance for the crime, pointing to the ease of proving cybercrime.
He noted that the aggrieved party has the right to claim compensation for the damage incurred in accordance with Article 282 of the Civil Transactions Law, as every damage to the other obligates the perpetrator, even if he is not discerning, to guarantee the damage.
