Woman cleared of sending abusive messages to man

abu dhabi — A woman who was convicted of abusing and insulting a man through WhatsApp messages has been acquitted on appeal.

The Abu Dhabi Appeal Court cancelled the ruling by the first instance court, which had found the Arab woman guilty of violating cyberlaw and dismissed the case on grounds that she was wrongly convicted.

The court said the legal deadline of two years in which a plaintiff is supposed to file a complaint against an accused person had elapsed.

Official court documents stated that the woman sent the abusive messages to the man via WhatsApp in 2015 but the man lodged a complaint against her in January 2017.

Besides not being acceptable by the law, it was illogical that the man could spend more than two years without filing a complaint about my client if the message she sent him were really insulting to him.” Ali Al Abbadi, woman’s layer

The man also presented to authorities the abusive messages he received from the woman as evidence. He said in his complaint that the messages sent to him by the woman were insulting and affected him morally. The public prosecution had charged the woman with violating online laws and the Criminal Court of First Instance found her guilty and fined her Dh5,000.

The woman appealed the ruling denying the charge and stressing that she was wrongly convicted.

Her lawyer Ali Al Abbadi argued that the victim claims that her client allegedly sent the abusive messages to him in 2015 and the man lodged the complaint against her in 2017 which is not acceptable according to the law.

“Besides not being acceptable by the law, it was illogical that the man could spend more than two years without filing a complaint about my client if the message she sent him were really insulting to him,” argued Al Abbadi.

The lawyer had requested court to acquit his client and also dismiss the case.