UAE- Man denies insulting police chief 

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) A jobless Emirati man, 42, charged with insulting the Dubai police chief on a social networking site, denied the charge on Wednesday in the Court of Misdemeanours claiming his Twitter post was aimed at some of the chief's entourage.

The Public Prosecution is accusing the defendant of insulting Lt-Gen Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police. A senior police lieutenant said in his statement to the prosecution that he was assigned personally by the chief to lodge a complaint at the General Department of Criminal Investigation against the defendant who had insulted the chief for the second time on Twitter.

The lieutenant was told by the chief that the accused insulted him for being the Commander-in-Chief of the police and not on his personal capacity. The defendant denied the charge before the court panel on Wednesday claiming his Twitter posts were aimed at some of the chief's entourage who, according to him, were not passing on his messages to the chief.

He also claimed that he sought many times to meet the chief but was denied admission by the same people. He told the court that he was ready to apologise to the chief if his tweets were taken as insults. He asked to be granted bail to apologise and get a waiver from the police chief.

It was not the first time the defendant had insulted Lt-Gen Dhahi Khalfan who had filed a lawsuit against him previously and did not pursue it as the latter hoped the defendant would not do it again. "Apparently, this did not work with the defendant who committed the same crime," the lieutenant said. During prosecution investigation, the defendant admitted that he had insulted the police chief on his Twitter account for he did not solve a problem he had.