Spa partner accused of breach of privacy

Dubai: A business partner in a spa has been accused of installing a video cam in the Moroccan bath section and secretly recording a woman who was taking a shower.

The 25-year-old Afghan partner, M.O., was accused of breaching the woman’s privacy and molesting her by watching her on the camera in December.

“I did not fix the cameras … it was the spa owner who did so,” said the defendant when he entered a not guilty plea before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

“Didn’t you install the cameras in the spa?” presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi asked the suspect.

“Well, yes, I was the one who fixed them, but after the manager [a woman named S.] asked me to do so. She was the one who wanted to install those cameras to monitor the employees. I can provide the court with copies of the emails in which she asked me to fix the cameras,” replied M.O.

When asked if he had seen the women undressed in the CCTV, the suspect said that he had not.

“The police came and examined the recordings before they confiscated the cameras and the recordings,” contended the suspect.

The Syrian woman testified to prosecutors that she went to the spa for a Moroccan bath.

“I went into the shower room and removed my clothes … the employee who was supposed to wash me informed me that the place is monitored by surveillance cameras,” she said.

A police sergeant claimed to prosecutors that a problem was reported at the spa in Al Muraqqabat at 10pm.

“We headed to the spa to investigate. The woman claimed that she visited the spa for a Moroccan bath. After she removed her clothes, according to her claims, she discovered that there were cameras in the shower room. I asked the woman to check the recordings to see if there were any images of her undressed. The Syrian discovered that she was caught naked on camera. We summoned the spa owner and when the latter came he alleged that he had installed the cameras to watch the employees. Further interrogations revealed that the owner had the facility to watch the CCTV footage on his mobile phone,” he testified.

The suspect was quoted as admitting to prosecutors that he installed the cameras.

The trial continues.