GoKawiilPolice lured the man to a meeting and arrested him after accessing a private WhatsApp group with colleagues
Dubai International Airport . Picture: Getty
By Issy Clarke
An airline employee was arrested by Dubai police after he shared images with colleagues in a private WhatsApp group of bomb damage caused by the Middle East conflict.
Listen to this article Loading audio...
Police accessed the closed WhatsApp group chat, saved the evidence and told the man to come to a meeting before arresting him. The offending image showed smoke rising above a building after the March 2026 strikes and had only been shared in the private group chat. He remains in detention on charges including publishing information deemed harmful to state interests, the maximum sentence of which is two years. Read more: Dubai 'arrests survivors of Iranian drone strike after they sent images of explosion aftermath to loved ones' Read more: British holidaymaker, 60, arrested in Dubai for 'filming missiles'
Smoke rises from fire near Dubai International Airport on March 16 after "drone-related incident". Picture: Getty
Radha Stirling, chief executive of London-based advocacy group Detained in Dubai, said Dubai police had "explicitly confirmed they are conducting electronic surveillance operations capable of detecting private WhatsApp messages." She said people were being tracked, identified, and arrested not for public statements, but for private exchanges between colleagues." 'Companies like WhatsApp must answer urgent questions about user privacy." she added.
Ms Stirling continued: "If private communications can be detected and used as the basis for arrest by overreaching or hypersensitive states, users worldwide need clarity on how their data is being accessed." The police report said authorities learned of the material's existence "'through electronic monitoring operations". A special team from the Electronic and Cybercrime Department was told to find the account holder who shared the video. The airline worker was tracked down, lured to a meeting and arrested by police. The case was then escalated to State Security Prosecution. He remains in detention.