judge court gavel
For illustrative purposes only. Image Credit: Agency

Dubai: The Public Prosecution in Fujairah has referred a government employee to Criminal Court for disclosing confidential information to an unauthorised third party.

The official, who was employed at an undisclosed department in the public sector, was accused of leaking important information, according to the Arabic online news site Sharjah24.

The accused was employed as an executive secretary and due to the nature of his work, was entrusted with confidential document.

Once the initial investigation was complete, the accused was referred to court and the prosecution ordered the case to be transferred to the Criminal Court in accordance with article 379/2 of the Federal Penal Code.

What is Article 379?

According to Article 379 of the Federal Penal Code: “Shall be sentenced to detention for a minimum period of one year and/or a minimum fine of Dh20,000 whoever by virtue of his profession, craft, position or art is entrusted with a secret and divulge it in cases other than those allowed by law or if used for his own personal interest or for the interest of another person, unless authorized by the confiding person to disclose or use it.

“The penalty shall be the imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years in case the perpetrator is a public servant or a person in charge of a public service who was confided the secret because of or on the occasion of discharging his duties or performing his service”.