Torture video case - into the land of the bizarre.

A quick recap. Back in April, after the infamous 'torture tape' involving Sheikh Eisa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and an Afghan merchant hit the international headlines, it was reported that the Human Rights Office of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department would conduct an immediate and comprehensive review and make its findings public at the earliest opportunity.

I posted about that, with links to a couple of the international media reports on the tape so if you don't know the details you can go to the post and the links here.

I've been wondering what had happened and now it appears that the review must have been finished. In the Al Ain Criminal Court of First Instance Sheikh Eisa has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and endangering the life of the Afghan.

That's when it starts getting bizarre.

The victim says he's been defamed because the video was made public without his permission.

It was released by the sheik's former partner and the Afghan merchant has lodged a criminal and civil case against him, accusing him of defamation by airing the video on the internet without his approval.

The physical damage is irrelevant, it's the defamation by publicising it that's the problem.

I need to think about that.


I thought the 'look what you made me do' defence was interesting too.

The defence says that the former partner and his brother set the whole thing up as a blackmail scam.

They plotted the incident to drug the sheikh and cause him to commit the alleged beating and videotape it for blackmailing purposes. They gave him more than sixty drugs over a long period which caused him to lose free will, lose self-control and lose his memory. They then demanded millions of dollars to destroy the video.

I'll be following this one with great interest.


Gulf News has the latest report here.