Ras Al Khaimah: A recent court ruling sounds like a wake-up call for spouses who spy on their partners’ mobile phones.
The Ras Al Khaimah Civil Court has found an Arab woman guilty of breaching the privacy of her husband after she spied into his mobile phone without his permission, according to court records. The court has fined the woman Dh5,431 in a ruling delivered earlier this week. The woman is of an Arab nationality while her husband is the citizen from a Gulf state. The couple have a daughter.
The woman gained access to her husband’s mobile phone and transferred photos and voice recordings from his phone to her phone. She then shared them with his mother with the intention of sullying his image, the husband claimed in his lawsuit. The husband demanded compensation for the damage he said he sustained as a result of his wife’s actions. The husband claimed that his salary was docked owing to his absence from work in following up the case with the police and court. He also claimed that the case had caused him psychological damage.
Case rejected
The woman’s lawyer stated that the husband had abused his client verbally and expelled her from their home, leaving her and their daughter without care. He also lodged a divorce case against her for harming him, though the case was rejected because the harm against him could not be proven in court.
The court stated that evidence proved that the woman had indeed breached the privacy of her husband by spying on his phone, sharing pictures and recordings and insulting him through her means of communication. Evidence also proved that the husband had incurred certain expenses due to he case and deserved to be financially compensated.
Compensation
However, the court rejected the husband’s claim of losing his salary for having to follow up the case with the police and judiciary. Based on the evidence, the court ordered the wife to pay Dh5,431 as compensation to her husband, in addition to legal fees and expenses incurred by him. The verdict is subject to appeal.
