Dubai Police are bent on jailing dissenters and are reportedly spying on private WhatsApp messages to sanction arrests.
police brutally Hunt An Emirati flight attendant died after privately sharing footage of smoke billowing from the site of an Iranian drone strike in the city.
Feeling his building shaking from the impact, the airline employee decided to record the scary scene and send it to a closed WhatsApp group of colleagues.
But even though the clip was not posted publicly, Dubai’s Digital Sleuth dogs They were reportedly straight to the point.
According to a police report, the clip was detected through an “electronic monitoring operation”.
It is unclear whether the messages were accessed through intrusion or leaked by a member of the group.
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But a specific cyber crime unit was reportedly formed to continue gathering evidence to identify the culprit.
The unwitting flight attendant was later tracked down, taken to a meeting place, and apprehended by the police.
He remains in custody after the case was referred to the State Security Prosecution, where charges include publishing information deemed harmful to state interests.
CEO Radha Sterling, who was detained in Dubai, said: “Dubai Police have now clearly confirmed that they are carrying out an electronic surveillance operation capable of tracing private WhatsApp messages.
“Individuals are being tracked, identified and arrested not for public statements, but for private exchanges between coworkers.”
Sterling said a number of related arrests had dramatically increased the pressure on Dubai residents and turned the city into a quasi-police state.
She said: “We have just been alerted to an extremely worrying case involving a comedian who has now been detained for almost a month after performing a one-line sketch.
“He was summoned to the police station without explanation and detained for more than 28 days under the UAE’s cybercrime laws.
“If it is like this then Law “If implemented, thousands of migrants could be at risk, not just for social media posts, but for jokes, sarcasm or even private messages.”
Sterling has called on global tech platforms to address vulnerabilities in their security.
She said: “Companies like WhatsApp must answer important questions about user privacy.
“If private communications can be traced and used as grounds for arrest by vulnerable or susceptible states, users around the world need clarity on how their data is being accessed.”
A meta The spokesperson said: “We secure personal messages with end-to-end encryption using the Signal protocol, which protects your messages before they leave your device.
“This means that no one outside the chat, not even WhatsApp or Meta, can read, listen to, or share them.”
The Sun has contacted the UAE Foreign Ministry for comment.
The UAE has faced growing accusations of using kangaroo courts to arrest and detain tourists who dare to speak negatively about the country.
A terrifying handwritten note smuggled out of an Emirati prison by a British prisoner claims he and 15 others were beaten by police.
More than 50 Britons have been arrested in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for sharing evidence of drone attacks.
The note, shared with The Sun by advocacy group Detained In Dubai, was just two lines long but contained a chilling message.
It claims a British prisoner was beaten by UAE police and has been locked up without hope of a trial to clear his name.
One line of the note reads: “There are 15 people in my case, all of us have been beaten by the special police force, the case will never go to court.”
It was smuggled from a prison in the UAE and delivered to detainees in Dubai last month.
It details the difficult conditions faced by people in UAE prisons.
Stirling told the Sun: “A British national currently detained in the UAE has smuggled in a handwritten note saying that he and fifteen other prisoners in his cell have been beaten by police.”
He Highlights past cases of British citizens being beaten in UAE prisons, including Britain’s grandfather Albert Douglas He was tortured throughout his life in Dubai’s dangerous Al Barsha prison..
He also claimed that many of those arrested had ignored the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) because they did not think it could help them.
iran Since the beginning, it has targeted Dubai and Abu Dhabi with hundreds of drones. iran war.
The attacks included drone debris, which caused massive fires on the side of Burj Khalifa and reaching the luxurious Fairmont hotel on the Palm Jumeirah.
Yet as missiles flew into the skies above the cities, Emirati officials threatened residents with heavy fines and jail if they shared footage of the attacks.
Repressive rules mean anyone sharing or taking photos of Iranian attacks in the UAE could be jailed for up to five years and fined thousands.
