A man working as a teacher in Dubai has been ordered to pay a fine of AED10,000 by the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours, after being found guilty of defaming another Dubai resident on social media.

The 31-year-old teacher was charged for posting a picture of a dog’s face morphed into a picture of the complainant’s body on his Instagram account. The convicted captioned the post (that depicted the complainant as a dog) reading, ‘we have a new breed of dogs for sale.’

Once the complaint was registered and the accused confessed guilty of the charges, the Dubai court confiscated the 31-year-old teacher’s smartphone, took down the reported post and shut down his Instagram account.

The defence lawyer argued that the accused was outside of the UAE when the incident took place, thus, not making it a matter for the Dubai courts to look into

Once the accused confirmed the allegations, he also informed that he was back in his home country when he posted the edited pictures of the complainant.

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Hence, the teacher’s defence lawyer Hani Hammouda of Kefah Al Zaabi firm for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy, made it a point that the accused was not in the country when he posted the picture, and the Dubai Courts are not the appropriate authority to look into a case that took place outside of the UAE.

The defence lawyer also requested the court to alter the charges to mere online insult and also summoned a member of the Dubai Police forensic expert for testimony in court to confirm the statements.