UAE: Up to Dh1 million fine, jail term for destruction of historic, national documents

Abu Dhabi: The UAE Public Prosecution (PP) has explained the penalties for intentional destruction of public, historic, national, and private documents in a post on its social media accounts.

The Public Prosecution noted that, according to Article No.25 of Federal Law No. (7) of 2008 on the National Library and Archives and its amendments, whoever intentionally destructs a document shall be sentenced to detention for a minimum term of no less than eight months and a fine of no less than Dh40,000 and no more than Dh100,000, or either of these two penalties.

“A detention for a minimum term of one year or a fine of no less than Dh50,000 and no more than Dh1,000,000, either of these two penalties shall be imposed on whoever intentionally destructs, smuggles outside the State, copies or discloses the content of a confidential document without the necessary permission to do so,” the article states.

The same penalties stated above and depending on the classification of the document, shall apply to whoever steals a document or obstructs those in charge of implementation of this law to access thereto.

The infliction of these penalties provided for in this law shall be without prejudice to severer penalty provided for in another law, the PP noted.

These posts are part of the Public Prosecution's continuous efforts to promote legal culture among members of the community and increase their awareness about the latest legislations in the country.