A closeup shot shows the facade of the Dubai Courts building during a hearing on April 04, 2010 in the case of a British couple sentenced to a month in jail after being convicted of kissing in public in a restaurant in the Muslim Gulf emirate. The couple's lawyer said the appeals court upheld the one-month prison sentence against the two, named by the British press as Ayman Najafi, 24, a British expat, and tourist Charlotte Lewis, 25. The couple were arrested in November 2009, after they were accused of consuming alcohol and kissing in a restaurant in the trendy Jumeirah Beach Residence neighbourhood.     AFP PHOTO/STR / AFP PHOTO
A Dubai court has granted a retrial to an Emirati man who was convicted of causing his friend’s death in a Shisha fire. AFP

Businessman accused of issuing threats and insults after relationship break-up


A businessman threatened to tell his former lover's husband of their affair unless she paid him Dh310,000, Dubai Criminal Court heard.

The judges were told the man sent an email to the woman demanding the sum he claimed he spent on her during their relationship.

Otherwise he would inform her husband and family of the affair, the court heard.

In September 2019, the businessman, 49, posted a picture on Facebook of the woman in a car he claimed he had bought her.

He wrote several insults under the image, it is alleged.

The woman, 48, told officers that she had been involved in a romantic relationship with the defendant for nearly four years.

She told him she wanted to end the affair, to which he reacted badly.

“He threatened to expose our relationship through an email he sent me,” she told the court.

She said the man later sent a series of WhatsApp messages to her husband, that included indecent pictures, and threatened to send the photos  to all of her family and friends.

"He was [out to] destroy my life because I broke up with him," the woman said.

At Al Barsha police station, the man admitted sending threatening emails and messages and posting the picture on his Facebook account, the court heard.

He was charged with issuing threats and insults, which he denied in court.

The next hearing is scheduled for June 8.