Officer's lawsuit alleges insulting text messages

Man is accused of sending SMS to his ex-wife naming police station director.

DUBAI // A Dubai police station director is suing a man over text message insults, a court heard.

The 48-year-old Armed Forces Capt MAT denied the insults and said he had meant them to refer to someone with the same family name. Prosecutors said MAT sent the texts to his ex-wife.

MA, the Emirati ex-wife, 37, said in records that she was married to MAT for 10 years, from 1990 to 2000. She said that during their marriage, they had visited several police stations in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi because of the many problems they had as a couple.

In March, she said he sent her a text message telling her to leave a man with whom he had accused her of having an affair.

"I'm not sure if he meant the police station's director, because he only wrote the last name," she said in records.

The director said in records that MA came to his office on April 13 and told him about the SMS. He said he filed the report immediately afterwards.

She added that she had a neighbour with the same name who was like a brother to her. Whenever she had a problem with her husband, he sent his wife to take her to their apartment while he talked to MAT.

"My ex-husband was a suspicious man," she said in records.

MAT denied insulting the officer.

"I was surprised when I heard that the station's director had filed a case against me," MAT said.

He said the message was meant for the neighbour, who he said befriended his wife when he went to the USA for medical treatment.

"MA told me when I returned from the USA how the neighbour had been telling her of his sexual problems with his wife, so I beat her up and divorced her," MAT said. "She spent two days after I divorced her in the man's apartment before we got back together."

He added that the neighbour threatened then that if MAT did not care for her, he would send him to prison.

"My relation with the station's manager is normal and he attempted to reconcile between me and my wife, but I complained against him at the Dubai police HQ after he did not carry out the court's order, which gave me custody of my four children," MAT said.

He added that he also filed a complaint against the director of Dubai Public Prosecution and the Ruler's Court, which he said led to the lawsuit against him.

The next hearing will be next month, when MA will testify.