Lots of of individuals have been arrested across the Gulf for filming Iranian attacks on tourist hotspots.
As many as 70 UK nationals have been locked up within the UAE for filming these drone and missile strikes.
Officials fear these videos and pictures breach cybercrime laws designed to guard the idyllic reputations of those countries.
Metro has heard the stories of two foreign nationals who were allegedly tracked down and arrested for innocently recording explosions in several Gulf countries.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has shared the testimonies of those individuals, who aren’t British and were detained and interrogated for hours after filming Iranian air strikes.
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One foreign national was arrested after being caught up in an Iranian attack over a serious Gulf city.
He was walking through the town at around 8.45pm when he heard loud explosions overhead and saw flashes within the sky.
He recalled: ‘Spontaneously, and out of sheer curiosity, I took out my cell phone and recorded a brief video, now not than 12 seconds, documenting the remaining smoke cloud within the sky and the mild panic on the street.
‘I didn’t livestream the footage, nor did I share it with anyone except a friend, to reassure him that I used to be protected.’
The foreign national went about his evening, but it surely was not long before the authorities one way or the other found him.
He said: ‘About an hour after recording the video, while I used to be returning to the apartment where I work, a civilian automotive stopped me.
‘Three individuals in plain clothes stepped out and identified themselves as security agents.
‘They immediately asked me to unlock my phone and present my identification.’
Officials then searched his phone and confiscated it once they discovered the video of the missile attack
The foreign national said he was then taken into detention for hours in what he claimed were overcrowded cells with individuals of assorted nationalities.
Describing the ‘interrogation’ that followed, he said: ‘The questioning focused on my motives for filming sensitive locations, spreading rumors, and assisting the enemy in identifying targets.
‘I attempted to elucidate that I had only filmed the open sky and that my intent was never hostile—evidenced by the proven fact that I had not published the video on any public platform.”
He claimed he was threatened with a protracted jail sentence and heavy fines through the interview. After 48 hours in custody, he was released.
Nonetheless, he claimed that he was forced to sign a document that admitted to violating the law, in addition to ‘a pledge not to reveal what had happened to any media or human rights entity’.
Officials also allegedly warned him he risked being deported and banned from re-entering the Gulf state if he broke this agreement.
Arrests for alleged breaches of cybercrime laws have taken place throughout the Middle East.
Because the start of the Iran war, local and national authorities within the UAE say they’ve made 189 arrests in reference to alleged violations of the country’s cybercrime laws.
Multiple numbers out of Qatar have confirmed that greater than 313 foreign nationals were detained there for similar videos and pictures.
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain – a number one human rights group – told Metro they’ve noted not less than 10 foreign nationals arrested in Bahrain in cases linked to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Jawad Fairooz, Director of SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights, said they were aware of 204 Bahraini residents arrested for various reasons because the war began.
One other foreign national shared their story of being arrested for filming missile strikes in a distinct Gulf state through Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
He was in a residential apartment in a big city in mid-March when air raid sirens blared, and loud explosions shook windows.
After stepping onto the balcony, he said he ‘involuntarily recorded a 20-second video on my phone, showing only the sky illuminated by explosions’.
He added: ‘I sent the video to my family via WhatsApp because they were very nervous about me, especially given the tense security situation because the outbreak of the war.’
Around 12 hours later, at midday the next day, there was a knock at his apartment.
He claimed: ‘I discovered 4 individuals in security uniforms.
‘After I asked in regards to the reason for his or her presence, they immediately questioned me in regards to the video I had recorded.
‘They confiscated my personal phone and laptop, placed me in a vehicle belonging to a security agency, and transferred me to a close-by security facility.’
He alleges he was blindfolded and left in a protracted corridor for hours before being taken into an interrogation room.
Through the police interview, he claimed the investigator ‘accused me of filming sensitive military locations during a state of emergency and sending coordinates to the enemy’.
The person said that he tried to defend himself from the accusations and stressed he would never do anything to threaten the country’s security.
The foreign national alleged he was then kept in solitary confinement for six days and denied contact together with his country’s embassy.
He was then released but allegedly forced to sign documents promising not to talk about what had happened to me.
Dr Ramy Abdu, Chairman of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said states were using ‘vaguely worded laws’ to ‘impose strict censorship’ on their populations.
He added: ‘We recognize the correct of states to safeguard their national security; nonetheless, invoking security imperatives doesn’t grant authorities a blank check to perform mass arrests devoid of due process.
‘Criminalizing spontaneous documentation doesn’t indicate a real security threat posed by individuals, but somewhat exposes a pattern of systematic information suppression employed by these governments.’
As many as 70 UK nationals who’ve been locked up within the UAE for filming Iranian attacks on the Gulf country.
British tourists, expats and cabin crew have been held in overcrowded police cells and will face ten years in jail for breaching laws around protecting ‘national security and stability’.
Campaign groups say the legal system is swamped with cases and a few are being denied sleep, food and medicine in detention.
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