It included offensive phrases. And «Dubai Misdemeanors» punished by a fine

«Racist chat» deprives employees of «social media» 3 months

An Asian company employee was implicated in the crime of "breach of trust", which led to the discovery of another crime, which was discriminatory insulting statements to his non-national colleagues during a chat with a former colleague.

The incident began when the company's manager wanted to change the company's phone package, and received a response that there was a package currently active, and that its owner had obtained two phones in the name of the company, which prompted him to scrutinize the matter.

The director discovered that the defendant (an employee of his) had obtained the phones.

As they belonged to the company, their content was checked to find that he had exchanged racist conversations abusive to his colleagues of another nationality, and he was referred to the prosecution, and then to the Misdemeanor Court, which fined him and the other person from using social media for three months.

According to the facts of the case, as established by the court's certainty and reassured by its conscience and according to the Public Prosecution's investigations, a representative of one of the companies went to the institution concerned with providing the telephone service to change the package of the company's manager, but he was unable to do so, and the competent employee informed him that the company's management had received two previous mobile phones, attached to a package, and it is not possible to obtain a new package before the end of the old one.

The company's representative stated in the seizure report and the Public Prosecution's investigations that the administration checked the employees who received phones, and it was found that the defendant received a phone in 2021, and received another phone in 2022, without the company's knowledge.

According to the investigations, the company's management took legal measures to inspect the contents of the two phones, and it was found that there were conversations that included abuse of Arab employees of the company, between the employee who uses the phone and a former colleague who worked for the same company. The conversations included abuses such as "they don't have a brain" and other inappropriate descriptions.

That time coincided with the discovery of embezzlement in the company, so its owner asked to report «breach of trust» against the first defendant, in addition to reporting the incident of insult through the social networking program «WhatsApp».

Copies of correspondence containing offensive phrases were attached to the case file, while the two defendants denied the charge against them in the Public Prosecution's investigations and before the court.

In its ruling, the court stated that insulting means cursing by using the explicit term indicating it, and the law considered it any affixing to a defect or expression that degrades a person or offends his honor.

She explained that the availability of the crime of insult must occur in a public place by nature or by chance, and the law does not require a special intention for the crime to be committed, but it is sufficient to have a general intention that is achieved with the knowledge of the offender that the things involving slander or insult, if they were true, would require the punishment of the projectile, or contempt him, and that the attribution in the crime of slander may be explicit or by pun, or rotation, and the meaning of the words.

She added that the lesson in the proof - according to the decision of the Court of Cassation - is the conviction of the judge and his reassurance of the evidence presented, pointing out that based on this, the charge is fixed against the defendants, taking the testimony of the two prosecution witnesses and photos of the attached conversations, and then ruled to punish her with a fine of 1500 dirhams and erase the phrases of the crime, and prevent them from using social media programs for a period of three months.

The defendant received two phones in the name of the company: the first in 2021 and the other in 2022 without the knowledge of the administration.

The conversations included abuse of other nationalities, such as "they don't have a mind," and inappropriate descriptions.