Court hears government officials’ defence in CCTV privacy case

The defence lawyer presented copies of official documents showing departmental meetings that had taken place in light of the introduction of the CCTV.

ABU DHABI // Government officials accused of placing CCTV in a women’s customer service centre said that security issues meant employees’ had reduced privacy rights, a court heard.

A K, director of the authority, M A, the Al Ain branch manager where the cameras were placed, and P, the IT manager, were previously charged with breaching privacy and IT laws.

At the Court of Misdemeanours on Tuesday, the defence lawyer for A K provided samples of the camera in question, as well as pictures detailing how it was placed visibly on the ceiling of the centre.

The lawyer also presented copies of official documents showing departmental meetings that had taken place in light of the introduction of the CCTV.

“The law of the authority says the employees are not entitled to any privacy for security reasons,” A K said.

“This is not the only centre that has cameras, There are more than 200 CCTV cameras across the authority’s branches.”

In addition, records of the men’s statements were different to what they actually said, A K said.

“We were in our cells at night and police asked us to re-issue our statements.

“After spending 69 days in jail, we saw the files for the first time upon our release,” A K said. “We immediately thought they were for a different case. This is not our case.”

The time-consuming nature of his job would have also prevented him from committing the charges he is accused of, he told the court.

He asked the court to examine the defendant’s phones to confirm that no photos were passed between any of them.

“Even the experts’ reports in the case files state that there was no exchange of photos or any photos found on any of their phones,” he said.

The court also heard from M A’s lawyer, who said her client had committed no offence.

The case was adjourned until March 29.