UAE orders detention of man buying luxury cars, summons owner

The United Arab Emirates has ordered the arrest of a man who was filmed arrogantly telling a car dealer in a luxury showroom to sell the most expensive cars in the garage to him, Arabian Business reports.

According to a report by the state-run news agency WAM, the movie degrades and ridicules Emirati society and incites citizens to hold negative public opinion.

In the viral video, an Asian man dressed in Emirati attire is seen attempting to buy a $545,000 car and others while being flanked by people holding significant sums of money.

He said, “What is the most expensive car here? Okay. I want the Mercedez, rolls royce and the Red Bull sports car.

Meanwhile, the UAE’s Federal Prosecution for Combating Rumours and Cybercrime has ordered the man’s detention anticipating investigations after he was accused of abusing the internet by disseminating exciting propaganda that incites public opinion and undermines public interest.

He was also accused of disseminating information that violated media content rules and disrespected Emirati society.

According to the UAE’s FBI, “He was shown distributing financial packages to the showroom employees in a way that reveals imprudence and lack of appreciation of the value of money.

“The video promotes a wrong and offensive mental image of Emirati citizens and ridicules them, and then incites and provokes public opinion, which harms the public interest.

“The Public Prosecution ordered the summoning of the owner of the car showroom in which the aforementioned video clip was filmed.”

The Public Prosecution urged social media users in the UAE to follow legal and ethical regulations in the media content they publish, to avoid falling under the force of the law, as well as to consider societal characteristics and embedded values of the UAE society that call for moral commitment in all aspects of behaviour.