Video of UAE Official Beating Indian Driver Sparks Debate
UAE anti-defamation laws are again under scrutiny as the Indian man who filmed the assault is put in jail.
An Indian man who uploaded a video of an Emirati’s attack on a driver sits in a United Arab Emirates jail — a palpable sign of the region’s detrimental defamation laws as well as the country’s continued crackdown on social media freedom.
The video, recorded on a cellphone and uploaded to YouTube, shows the actions of an Emirati government official following a traffic accident. He walks up to the Indian driver, punches him several times and whips him with his agal, the rope that keeps the traditional Arab headdress in place. The humiliating beating lasts several minutes until another witness intervenes.
The video spread like wildfire on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook as well the increasingly popular social media apps such as WhatsApp. Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed it on YouTube.
