Man threatened to 'scandalise' his wife

Man accused of threatening to post indecent pictures of his wife on the internet.

DUBAI // A man sent indecent pictures of his wife to his mother-in-law to blackmail her into dropping her opposition to the marriage, a court heard.

KS, an unemployed 28-year-old Emirati, said he married his wife a year ago following a four-year relationship, but that "family problems" emerged after they tied the knot.

"We got married after we had sex to avoid going to court on consensual sex charge," said the man. He said that two days after the marriage his wife's family asked him to divorce her, but he refused.

About three months later, in early October, he sent a number of text messages containing indecent pictures of his wife to his sister-in-law and mother-in-law. He denied that he had meant it as a threat.

"I was trying to get in touch with her to give her all the indecent pictures that I took of her before and after our marriage," he said.

He said he sent some of these pictures on a USB to his wife's mother to convince her to let her daughter return to him. He said he had more than 200 pictures of his wife, and three copies of the pictures on various devices.

His wife, 22-year-old AK, said he had threatened to post the pictures on the internet if she did not give him Dh2 million, but he denied this.

Prosecutors showed the court one of the text messages, which read: "You think I'm kidding, I swear I can scandalise you on YouTube."

The man admitted sending the message, but claimed he did so out of desperation because her family would not allow them to contact one another.

"I just did it to scare them off," he told prosecutors.

But his wife said that she was the one who had requested a divorce, and that following this her husband started sending threats to her mother, sister and herself.

The man was charged with using a mobile to cause disturbance to his wife, threatening her and threatening his wife's sister and mother.

A verdict is expected in September.