Dubai engineer ‘threatened to post woman’s photos online if she did not marry him’

DUBAI // An engineer threatened to post private photos of a woman on Facebook if she did not marry him before breaking into her home and assaulting her, the Dubai Criminal Court was told.

Prosecutors said Lebanese businesswoman J A, 31, first met Emirati A B, 36, a petroleum engineer, in 2013.

“After 10 days of meeting he proposed to me and I didn’t refuse,” said JA told prosecutors. “Later on I found out some behaviour that I didn’t like in him. He used me financially and kept telling me to pay for outings because he forgot his wallet.”

In February 2013, J A met up with A B. “He requested to see my mobile and demanded I give him my pass code to access it.”

A B grabbed her by the neck and threatened her. Records said that A B took a memory card containing private pictures of the victim and her friends from the phone.

While J A was in Lebanon, A B threatened that he would post the pictures on Facebook. A B travelled to Lebanon to meet her, but she refused to see him.

When she returned in December 2013, J A reconnected with A B and told him that she would marry him. However, they broke up after she saw him giving his phone number to a girl in a restaurant.

They made up again in May last year and met for dinner. Afterwards J A went home, but A B broke into her apartment and assaulted her.

“He was mad and started hitting me,” said J A. “He copied the contacts from my phone and deleted threatening texts that he had sent me.

“He demanded I marry him. I said yes out of fear. He stayed in my apartment and we went to the hospital to get medical tests required to get married.” J A said.

However, they couldn’t take with the test because J A didn’t have ID. She then managed to run away back to her apartment.

The victim later found out that A B had sent photos of her to the contacts in her phone and called several people, damaging her reputation. She then reported him to police.

A B entered a plea of not guilty to charges of issuing threats, assault, and breaking and entering.

The next hearing is set on May 10.