UAE | Crime
Two RTA employees get suspended sentence for leaking of video footage
Two employees of the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) were found guilty of leaking video footage showing a traffic policeman being run over by a speeding car in the Airport Tunnel, on Sunday.
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 16:51 September 10, 2008
Dubai: Two employees of the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) were found guilty of leaking video footage showing a traffic policeman being run over by a speeding car in the Airport Tunnel, on Sunday.
The Dubai Court of First Instance awarded the Emirati convicts, 50 year-old employee and a 24-year-old engineer, a three-month suspended jail term. Meanwhile the employee, A.M., was acquitted of belittling and defaming the deceased.
Public Prosecution records said A.M. and 24-year-old A.A., apologized to the Emirati policeman's family and said they didn't have bad intention to demean him.
Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir incriminated the duo and sentenced them to three month in jail each, but he suspended the imprisonment for three years during which the crime should not be repeated.
"No I didn't to it ... I didn't defame or belittle the deceased ... I am not guilty," A.A. told the court earlier.
The engineer also pleaded innocent.
The 50-year-old was charged with breaching secrets when he permitted the engineer to watch the accident footage from the RTA's control room and allowed him to record it on his cell-phone.
The 24-year-old was charged with aiding and abetting the employee.
The Public Prosecution also charged the 50-year-old with belittling the deceased by criticizing the way he treated the accident.
The 52-year-old brother of the deceased, F.M., testified: "Five days following the death, the father of the person who caused the accident told me that someone had been circulating the accident footage ... I heard voices of mockery and giggling."
A 25-year-old relative, S.D., confirmed F.M.'s statement and told his interrogators that he saw the suspects when they visited the family and apologised for what happened without confessing that they did it.
"Two weeks later, the engineer told me he recorded the footage and forwarded it without bad intention to a third party whom he accused of circulating the footage ... the voice of mockery came from the 50-year-old suspect who phoned me later, apologised and pleaded forgiveness after he said he was mistaken but didn't have bad intention," S.D. testified.
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