A spiteful ex-wife, who asked a house manager to take a video of her former husband’s new wife’s bedroom changing room then shared it on WhatsApp, has been found guilty of illegally exposing private details electronically.
Both the Bahraini woman and the Indian man lost their final appeals at the Cassation Court after being found convicted of misusing telecommunication devices and publicly divulging ‘house secrets’.
According to court documents, the female appellant was once married to the victim’s husband and had previously lived in the home and slept in the bedroom now frequented by his new love.
She had asked the male appellant to capture images of the house, her ex-husband’s car and the new wife’s changing room, which he did with the aid of several housemaids as he was not allowed to enter the bedroom.
Prosecutors state that the woman went on to forward these images to family and friends, alongside derisive ‘libellous’ comments, in an attempt to ‘ruin the victim’s reputation’ and ‘defame her’.
The ex-wife claimed that the images and videos were not ‘publicly shared’, and that she only wanted to check on her old home ahead of a planned visit by her children to their father’s house.
“It is the appellant’s legal and Sharia-given right to check on her home and look out for her children,” her defence stated. “She did not have any criminal intent as she didn’t spread the images and ultimately did not harm the new wife. She was also not the main source of the photos and videos.”
The defence claimed that the ex-husband wanted to derail ongoing litigation involving divorce and alimony, which led him to urge the victim to report the incident.
The Indian expatriate’s defence argued that he was only following the orders of his boss, whose house he had managed for years, and that he had no motive or interest in harming the new wife.
Judges dismissed the excuses and stated that the actions were committed on purpose by the ex-wife in order to harass the victim, and that it was unacceptable to ask a man to capture footage of a woman’s changing room.
The Lower Criminal Court found them both guilty on defamation and misuse of electric devices charges and fined them each BD50. The High Criminal Appeals Court upheld the verdicts.
They took to the Cassation Court in a final attempt to escape punishment, and in the Indian’s case to overturn a deportation order, but the country’s highest court rejected their appeals.
The Bahraini Penal Code criminalises divulging ‘house secrets’, a term used in Middle Eastern society to describe the private and intimate affairs of a couple and their family. Sharing such information is considered shameful and the parties involved are generally ostracised.
“Sharing, by any method of publication, details, photographs or comments relating to individuals’ private or family lives, even if true, in a way that harms them” is illegal in Bahrain,” he court added.
It is also against the law to ‘deliberately cause an inconvenience to others by misusing telecommunications methods’.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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