Did you know that in 2016, a suspicious wife was jailed for breaching her husband’s privacy by looking through his phone without permission?
The incident occured in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which has very strict privacy laws which forbid anyone from secretly looking at other people’s phone or computer data.
The unnamed woman – an Arab expatriate in the UAE- is reported to have checked her husband’s mobile phone after becoming suspicious he was having an affair.
This did not go down well with her husband who filed charges against her, causing her to be prosecuted under the UAE’s cybercrime laws.
The woman who was in her 30s appeared before the Ras Al Khaimah Court where she admitted to the charges. In her defence, however, she blamed her husband for having an ‘illicit affair’ with a woman he used to text and talk to frequently.
The woman’s lawyer, Eman Sabt, told the court that his client tried very hard over nine years to have a blissful marital life, but the husband cheated on her. He further argued that his client did not mean to harm him or anyone else, adding that the husband had willingly given her his mobile phone and asked her to check it – which she didn’t out of trust. She wanted to avoid any misunderstanding.
However, the wife’s suspicions grew when her husband started receiving regular phone calls and texts, which forced her into checking his cell phone without him knowing.
She was said to have then transferred pictures and chats to her phone, using WhatsApp, to show her siblings.
She claimed her husband had given her his password and allowed her to look at his phone since she had caught him chatting with other women before.
The defence lawyer concluded by saying that his client did not have any criminal intent and refused to divulge any of her marital disputes – even during the five counselling sessions held in court to amicably settle the litigation.
The court found the wife guilty of breaching the privacy of her husband under criminal penal code No. 212 and the cybercrime law, Federal Decree-Law No. 5 of 2012, article No 21, which stipulates that a person
“…shall be punished by imprisonment of a period of at least six months and a fine not less than Dh150,000 and not in excess of Dh500,000 or either of these two penalties whoever uses a computer network and/or electronic information system or any information technology means for the invasion of privacy of another person in other than the cases allowed by the law…”
The court sentenced the woman to three months in jail but gave her the option of paying a fine of 150,000 dirhams (£28,000; US$41,000). The court also ordered that the suspicious wife should be deported from the UAE.
Under the UAE’s strict cyber laws, it is considered a violation of an adult’s personal online privacy if any of their information is looked at in secret by a partner, friend, relative, parent or work colleague.
Even in married couples, it is still an offence for either husband or wife to search each other’s phone, even if one suspects their spouse of cheating.-iharare
