Four students jailed for blackmailing teenage girl win appeal


Salam Al Amir
  • English
  • Arabic

DUBAI // Four students who were jailed for blackmailing a teenager and forcing her to steal money and jewellery from her mother have had their sentences overturned.

Pakistanis M H, 19, M A H, 20, M R, 18, and A H, 22, had all been found guilty in January of issuing threats, blackmail and physical and were each sentenced to one year in jail by Dubai Criminal Court.

On Sunday, however, they were acquitted by the Dubai Court of Appeal.

Prosecutors had said they threatened to post private pictures of their compatriot, R L, on Facebook if she did not pay them and pushed the girl to steal Dh14,000 jewellery from her mother. When R L said she could no longer pay, she claimed they assaulted her.

She said she had been friends with M H since March 2014.

On one occasion, M H asked to use her phone. “I didn’t know he forwarded some of my private pictures from my device to his through WhatsApp,” said R L. “Soon after, M H asked me for money. I told him I didn’t have much so he threatened me, saying he forwarded pictures from my phone and that he would post them on Facebook if I didn’t pay him. He even showed me the pictures.”

She claimed that M H and his three friends posted private pictures of her friend as a threat, after which the teenager began stealing from her mother’s purse. She said the four of them sent her threatening text messages.

In January last year, R L said she stopped paying them and told them she would use the threatening text messages against them if they did not stop.

Prosecutors said M H met R L and deleted all the messages from the girl’s phone. He then showed her a video clip of him and his friends assaulting a man and told her: “If you don’t pay, this will happen to you”.

On March 26 last year, R L said she paid M H, M A H, M R and AH Dh8,000 and stole some of her mother’s jewellery. When she no longer had cash or jewellery to give, she said M H, M A H, M R and A H assaulted her near her school.

No reason for the acquittal was given.

salamir@thenational.ae

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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Company name: Nybl 

Date started: November 2018

Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence

Initial investment: $500,000

Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)

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