UAE man fined, jailed for calling his fiancee 'idiot' in WhatsApp message

A UAE man has been jailed for 60 days and fined Dh20,000 in Abu Dhabi for offending his fiancee.

According to a report published by Khaleej Times, the GCC national had sent his love a message on WhatsApp as a joke, calling her "idiot" (habla in Arabic). 

Although he claimed to have used that word in a joking manner, she took it as an insult and filed a court case against him, as per an Emarat Al Youm report.

This is one of several court cases filed on the premise of a person sending something on WhatsApp as a joke, which the other person took seriously.

Under the law, sending anything of an offensive nature on social media is considered a cybercrime. Perpetrators will be jailed and face fines of no less than Dh250,000 up to Dh1 million.

In a second case, a young man landed in court for broadcasting an explicit clip on WhatsApp to a woman on his contact list, according to the report. 

He claimed in court that he had sent her the message by accident, as he usually sends people on his list a daily prayer clip. That day he had accidentally forwarded the clip without checking the material beforehand.

Another man of Arab descent was detained after returning to UAE from his homeland for sending explicit videos and texts to six women in a third case.

He testified that his mobile phone had been stolen while he was in UAE and he had no idea who was sending the explicit content.

According to a legal consultant, Hasan Al Reyami, any content sent on social media or messaging services will be prosecuted under the cybercrimes law. This applies to messages sent on purpose or by "accident".