Voyeur in Oman sentenced to three years in jail

Muscat: A Ministry of Health employee in Oman was sent to three years in prison and fined 5,000 Omani riyals (Dh47,562) for planting hidden cameras in the Khoula Hospital ladies toilet.

Last January, the hospital authorities discovered a surveillance camera fitted in the ladies toilet with feed from the camera directed to a computer. An Omani employee was charged with the offence of fitting the camera and arrested.

A Criminal Trial Court judge on Thursday ordered the accused, whose identity is not revealed, to pay 3000 riyals if he wished to challenge the trial court judgement in the appeal court.

He also ordered all the material used for the crime to be confiscated, according to a report in the Arabic tabloid Azamn.

The judge directed some of the hospital employees to take their case for compensation to a Civil Court.

The Arabic daily reported that a large number of hospital employees attended the final hearing and the courtroom was packed to capacity.

Some of the female employees had demanded severe punishment for the accused for the psychological damage caused by his criminal act, the paper reported.

The employees also demanded that the court take a written undertaking from the accused not to publish photographs/clips that he may still have in his possession. They also urged the court to destroy all images and clips if any were found by the police.

The Public Prosecution had also demanded tougher penalties.

According to an expert witness in the court, the accused had deployed a mechanism that activated the camera every time the toilet door was opened.