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A court in the UAE jailed a woman for three months for looking through
her husband's phone without him knowing.
The woman's husband filed a lawsuit against her, accusing her of
violating his privacy, and she was put on trial.
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A court in Ras Al Khaimah - the northernmost emirate of the United Arab
Emirates and known for its Arabian Gulf beaches - found her guilty.
In his statement made against her, the man said his wife went through
his phone and copied all the data to another device in order to search
through the information at a later date.
The husband made the complaint after his wife was said to have scrolled
through his phone contents while he was asleep.
She was said to have then transferred pictures and chats to her phone to
show her siblings.
She claimed her husband had given her his password and allowed her to
look at his phone since she had caught him chatting with other women
before.
The UAE's has strict cybercrime laws, especially when it comes to
protecting the privacy of individuals online.
Some on Twitter defended the wife, with one poster added: 'If she wasn't
suspicious over something, she wouldn't have gone through his phone.
Isn't it shameful for him to jail his own wife?'
But others said she deserved to be jailed, with one saying: 'She
deserves this. No one told her to go through his phone.'
Speaking to Emarat Al Youm, lawyers Raed Al Awlaki and Mohammad Jad Al
Mawla explained that under the country's laws, it's illegal to go
through anyone's phone without their permission.
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Even in married couples it is still an offence for either husband or
wife to search each other's phone, even if one suspects their spouse of
cheating.
It is also considered a violation of an adult's personal online privacy
if any of their information is looked at in secret by a partner, friend,
relative, parent or work colleague.
In August, president Sheikh Khalifa issued new cybercrime laws which
could see criminals face jail terms of up to 25 years.
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