Dubai: An administrator has been jailed for six months for secretly filming his flatmate in a state of undress as she was taking care of her personal hygiene.
The 24-year-old Filipina was notified by her countryman friend that the 38-year-old Filipino administrator, with whom she had formerly shared a flat, had filmed her nude in the bedroom in November.
Disbelieving what she was told, the friend showed her a 10-second video on WhatsApp in which she was filmed partly naked and cleaning herself.
The woman realised that the defendant had filmed her early morning when she was getting ready for work.
The friend told her that the accused boasted before him that he had filmed her nude in her bedroom.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of breaching the woman’s modesty, molesting her by secretly filming her nude and misusing the telecommunication system when he filmed her washing herself.
According to the primary judgement, the accused, who pleaded guilty, will be deported.
“I made a mistake. I am sorry,” the accused told the court and pleaded for forgiveness.
The woman said her friend alerted her about the video in which she had been filmed taking care of herself.
“I was at home at Dubai Investment Park when my Filipino friend told me that the defendant had secretly filmed me nude when I was at my previous residence. Initially, I did not believe him until he showed me the clip that the accused had sent to him on WhatsApp. He secretly filmed me while I was getting dressed after taking a morning shower and getting ready to go to work. From the video content, it was quite obvious that the accused slid his hand underneath the wooden partition [that we had used to divide the room into two compartments] and made the video,” she testified as she requested a stern punishment to deter the accused from using the video against her and uploading it on the internet.
The ruling remains subject to appeal.
