Ryan Pate, 30, has been charged in the UAE with cyber slander against his employer and cyber slander against management for a Facebook post that is protected by the First Amendment in the US, the Tampa Tribune reported.
In the Facebook post, which the Tribune did not publish in full, Pate made disparaging comments about Arabs and his employer in the UAE, a company called Global Aerospace Logistics.
When Pate returned to the UAE last month, he was asked to report to an Abu Dhabi police station.
Pate is currently free on bail while he awaits a trial later this month. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Pate said he turned to Facebook to “warn people against working for my company.” Instead, he slammed the company and made disparaging racial remarks, including comments about “filthy Arabs,” the Tribune reported.
“I wasn’t as tactful as I could have been,” he said during a phone interview from his Abu Dhabi apartment.
Pate was working as a helicopter mechanic for Global Aerospace Logistics when he started experiencing back problems and was trying to leave the company, the Tribune reported. US doctors confirmed he needed to stop working, but the company, Pate said, wanted to get a second opinion in the UAE.
He was outraged when the company froze his pay, prompting the Facebook post.
“I got real upset,” Pate said. “I was having problems with the company for the past four or five months.”
Pate said he spent a total of about 10 days in jail before being released on bail. He was forced to hand over his passport to police.
Back in the US, Pate’s fiancée started a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal costs. The campaign has raised more than $15,000 toward its goal of $45,000.
“Our goal is to bring him home and not have him serve prison time,” she told the Tribune.
“My secondary goal is for people to understand the laws over there. I never heard of anything like this before. Even the US Embassy was confused.”
Congressman David Jolly, of Florida, reached out to Secretary of State John Kerry and Ali Mohammed Abdullah Al Bloushi, the Emerati attorney general, calling for Pate’s release.
Jolly said that while Pate’s comments were “very offensive,” he nonetheless posted them from the US while protected by the First Amendment.
“As such it is deeply troubling that Mr. Pate now faces judicial proceedings over an action that was done legally in his home country,” Jolly wrote.
