Arrest ordered after Emirati forced caged Asian workers to cheer for UAE football team

Arrest ordered after Emirati forced caged Asian workers to cheer for UAE football team
UAE fans get behind their team at the 2019 Asian Cup. (AFP)
Updated 11 January 2019
Follow

Arrest ordered after Emirati forced caged Asian workers to cheer for UAE football team

Arrest ordered after Emirati forced caged Asian workers to cheer for UAE football team
  • Video shows workers being urged to switch allegiances ahead of India-UAE Asian Cup match
  • UAE Attorney General says the video goes against the country's values of tolerance

ABU DHABI: The UAE’s Attorney General ordered the arrest of a man who posted a video on social media showing him forcing a group of Asian employees to cheer for the UAE national football team ahead of their Asian Cup encounter with India.

The men, who are employees of the Emirati citizen seen in the video, are in a chicken wire fenced cage and being urged to switch allegiances and cheer for the UAE national team over India. When they do as ordered, they are then released from the cage.

The Attorney General said the arrest order was issued, “given that such conduct is deemed illegal in the UAE and against the country’s values of tolerance.”




A screen grab of the Emirati citizen urging his employees to cheer for the UAE. (Social Media)

The person who filmed and posted the video has been apprehended and referred to “the Public Prosecution for investigation,” Sharjah Police Headquarters said.

Sharjah Police also said that the behavior shown in the video is contrary to the “customs and traditions” of UAE citizens.

Sharjah police urged all members of society to familiarise themselves with laws relating to social media use so that they are not disciplined.