Muscat: An Arab man has been found guilty of taking photos of an Arab woman without her knowledge while she was in a public place with her husband.
The Barka Primary Court sentenced the man to one year in jail and fined him 1,000 Omani riyals, half of which the woman will receive as compensation.
The woman’s husband spotted the man snapping pictures and immediately reported the case to the Royal Oman Police.
The man was arrested. On being interrogated, he admitted that he was planning to send the pictures to his friends.
Article 16 of Oman’s cyber law stipulates that any person who publishes news or pictures of someone else’s private life can face up to three years in prison and a fine of upto 5,000 riyals.
Several arrests have been made recently by authorities in a crackdown on obscene social media content.
The public prosecution urged the public to report any inappropriate behaviour on social media.
In April 2016, the Muscat Primary Court sentenced three teenagers to one year in prison for being involved in an obscene video at one of the private schools in Muscat governorate. The court also slapped them with a 1,000-riyal fine.
In November 2015, an Omani was found guilty of posting revealing pictures of his girlfriend on Instagram and was sentenced to one month in jail and fined 2,000 riyals, half of which was awarded to the woman as compensation.
The man admitted that he posted the pictures in anger after they had a fight.
