The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has jailed a Nigerian, Ms Dunchi Lar, for violating the country’s cybercrime law.
According to the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM, Lar was convicted for recording and circulating an “offensive” video on social media.
Spokesman for the commission, Mr. Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said in a statement that Lar was convicted under the UAE cybercrime law.
However, he said Lar who was sentenced October 12 has 15 days to appeal the judgment.
“Under the UAE cybercrime law, taking a video or photograph of someone without his/her consent and posting such on social media is an offence punishable with one-year jail term or a fine between approximately $69,000 and $137,000, or both jail term and fine.
“Ms Lar made and tweeted the viral video of the UAE official at the airport. She was sentenced on the 12th of October and has 15 days to appeal the judgment. Ms Dunchi Lar can still appeal the ruling and has been assured of moral and consular support by the Nigerian mission in Dubai,” he said.
She had filmed and tweeted a video of a UAE airport official that went viral.
In the UAE, taking a video or photograph of someone without their consent and posting such on social media is a violation of the country’s cybercrime act.
The law also applies to eavesdropping, recording, photographing, or disclosing audio or video communication of a person without their permission.
Also, taking photographs or videos of a dead person or accident victim without such a person’s consent is a violation of the law.
Recall that on August 31, Lar had taken to her Twitter page to share photos and videos of herself and other people she identified as Nigerians being detained at the Dubai international airport.
She wrote, “I am at the Dubai international airport and myself and some tiger Nigerians with valid visas are being held in a room hours after arriving with no explanation and no information on what we can do. Please help me. There is more than 20 of us.”
In a series of posts that followed, Lar accused the airport authorities of humiliating Nigerians.
Meanwhile, her family said she was incarcerated for exposing the maltreatment of Nigerians at Dubai airports.
They stated this during a protest on Sunday (yesterday) in Abuja after the Dubai authorities sentenced her to one-year imprisonment.
On Saturday, her family, in a post by one @jerrydoubles, said she was sentenced for exposing the maltreatments of Nigerians in Dubai.
The post reads: “It is sad and regrettably heartrending to tell you all that Dinchi Lar was sentenced on 12th Oct 22, to 1yr in jail in Dubai. Her family is devastated and Nigeria didn’t save her. Her sentence came from the backdrop that she got a family visa to travel. But in fact, she was traveling with her sister. It got messy and complicated. She was released on arrival after being detained for several hours, only to be sentenced when she was returning to Nigeria.
“They are capitalising on the fact that she made a video then posted it on her Twitter timeline to narrate the ordeal. They said it’s cybercrime in their country. She went ahead to delete it. Still, that didn’t soften them. Now she’s jailed. We are planning a protest at the Dubai consulate in Abuja.”
