DUBAI // A wife told her husband her brothers would "teach him a lesson" if he did not change his philandering, money-grabbing ways and refrain from downloading pornography on her laptop, a court heard today.
KA, a 34-year-old Emirati, sent a number of texts to her 37-year-old husband SM between September 13 and November 10 last year urging him to change his behaviour.
"Your life is not blessed. The life of a dog is more honourable than yours - you are running around like a dog and you are a liar," read one of the messages, while another warned: "Don't make my brothers act in a way you won't like - I have been silent until now, but if it makes it to court don't blame anyone but yourself.
The wife admitted sending the messages, saying she did so "because he did not support me when I was tired and sick, and because he never asks about his son." She also said she did not mean to threaten him, but only to let him know that if they were to divorce she would not waive her rights to what was rightfully hers.
The pair have a seven-month-old boy together, but the wife said that since marrying her husband about a year-and-a-half ago the relationship had soured and that he had been having affairs.
"I am the one who pays for everything and he uses my car often and always leaves womanly items in it," she said, adding that he had taken Dh6,000 from her to open a cafeteria, but had not given anything back.
The wife showed the court several pictures of her husband kissing other women and said she found he had been using her laptop to download pornographic videos.
She told prosecutors that while she was pregnant he would flirt with nurses when she had doctor's appointments, and that after she gave birth he molested the maid. When she told him she knew what he had done he threw her out of the apartment in the middle of the night along with her newborn baby.
She said that he would often insult her in front of his children from his previous marriages and in front of the maids.
The wife told the court she believed her husband treated her so badly so that she would ask for a divorce and waive her rights.
The husband, a manager at a well-known firm, told prosecutors that his brother in law threatened to assault him. He said his wife sent a number of insulting messages in which she said he was "in and out of relationships with bitches" and that he spent his life in hotel bars.
"I didn't want to lodge a complaint at first but when she sent more messages, I did" he said. The wife was charged with issuing threats and insulting her husband.
The next hearing was scheduled for August 28.
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Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
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Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.
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