Dubai: A steward has been charged with misusing social media to defame Emirates airline by posting slanderous photos of animals boarding on planes and images of airhostesses with animal faces.
Emirates airline was said to have discovered the images in which the national carrier was being reportedly disparaged and mocked on the Facebook account of one of its staff in March.
The airliner lodged a police complaint against the Pakistani steward for allegedly smearing Emirates airline’s reputation on Facebook.
The Pakistani steward created a bogus profile on Facebook and posted photos, according to records, of sheep, cows and other animals walking into and out of a plane.
He was also reported to have posted montaged and photoshopped images of flight attendants in their official outfits with faces of animals.
Dubai Police’s Cybercrime Section carried out investigations that led to the arrest of the Pakistani steward from his residence.
When questioned by the police, the steward refuted the accusations and contended that he adores his job and his employer and would never do anything to harm Emirates’ reputation or land himself in trouble. He also alleged that a hacker could have created the bogus Facebook account.
Prosecutors accused the Pakistani suspect of misusing social media to deride his workplace.
According to the accusation sheet, prosecutors said the Pakistani suspect derided Emirates when he abused Facebook and posted on it photos and videos of slanderous and offensive content.
When the suspect appeared before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court, he pleaded not guilty and firmly refuted the charges.
He contended that the Facebook account did not belong to him.
A security official from the airline testified to prosecutors that they discovered that it was the suspect who had smeared the national carrier on Facebook from his work ID.
“In one of the photos, he posted an image of an EK work ID. When we checked the bar code of that ID in our system, he turned out to be one of the staff [the suspect]. The Facebook account that had the slanderous images had his name,” the official claimed to prosecutors.
The suspect’s lawyer will review the case file and present his defence when the court reconvenes in November.
