Former President of Ghana Football Association, Kwasi Nyantakyi has revealed that a formal complaint has been made in the United Arab Emirates against investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas over parts of the recordings in the recent #Number12 video footage.
According to Nyantakyi, Anas and his TigerEye PI team broke the laws of the Emirati country by secretly filming him without his consent.
Speaking on Net2 TV on Thursday morning, Kwesi Nyantakyi said Anas will have to face the laws in Dubai over the secret filming.
Kwesi Nyantakyi said Anas will face jail in Dubai if he is found guilty over the offence unlike in Ghana where he is certain to go scot-free for secretly filming.
“Even in the UAE, it is illegal to record anybody without his permission. It is a criminal offence, it is not like here in Ghana. In Ghana we will say breach of the constitution but over there, you will be taken to court and if you are guilty, you are jailed for recording someone without permission. As for him Anas, the report we have made against him, he will have to face those things in future and answer why he will be recording people in Dubai without their permission. It is in Ghana that he can do that and go scot free but it is not possible for him to do that in Dubai,” Nyantakyi said.
This is the first time the former FA boss is commenting publicly on Anas after the journalist and his TigerEye PI team premiered an investigative film on football corruption that saw Mr. Nyantakyi removed from all positions in football and permanently banned from football-related activities by FIFA.
According the Dubai Police, filming and taking photos of people without their permission is punishable by UAE’s laws and regulations; namely the Federal Decree Law No. 5 of 2012 on Combating Cybercrimes (Cybercrime Law) that prohibits the invasion of an individual’s privacy by breaching their privacy, including taking pictures of others, or publishing or displaying those pictures.
“The law states that those caught using technology to invade someone else’s privacy can be jailed for not less than one year and face fines of between Dh150,000 (GH¢ 214,000) and Dh500,000 (GH¢ 700,000),” Dubai Police said.
Anas sent someone to demand $150,000 bribe
Kwesi Nyantakyi in the Net 2 interview alleged that Anas sent a lawyer to demand a $150,000 bribe from him after negotiating from $400,000.
Mr. Nyantakyi failed to name the said lawyer, but his wife, Christine-Marie Nyantakyi in a previous interview revealed that Mr. Nyantakyi paid only $100,000 of the amount.
Christine-Marie Nyantakyi told Paul Adom Otchere on Good Evening Ghana in November that “came back to him and said the person says you need to add $50,000, and he said well, I don’t have it; that’s all that I have.”
Asked what happened to the $100,000, she said it was later returned to them when the video was shown.
“They brought $40,000 first; and then later on, they brought $60,000 dollars,” she said.
Anas and his TigerEye PI team have since challenged Nyantakyi to name the said individual who allegedly came to demand the money on behalf of Anas.