DUBAI // A 45-year-old sales manager has denied threatening to post footage on the internet of a married mother stripping if she did not have sex with him.
Syrian A T was charged with blackmail and issuing threats at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday.
Records show that the alleged victim, J A, had become acquainted with a woman on Blackberry Messenger who told her after a while that her brother was interested in asking for her hand in marriage.
“We became good friends, her and I, and we even exchanged pictures and she told me her brother had seen my picture and wanted to marry me,” said J A.
She added that she later chatted to the man on Skype, but she noticed he was using his mobile phone to film her during the call.
“He then asked me to strip for him or he would post all the pictures and filming he took on YouTube and other social networks, which made me give in,” the woman said.
J A said she was later threatened again by the man, who said that he would post clips of her stripping online if she did not have sex with him.
The alleged incidents happened in June last year. The woman then registered a complaint with Dubai Police. A T was arrested on the 10th of the same month, and allegedly confessed to threatening the woman.
Yemeni policeman A A testified that the defendant confessed to him that he had threatened her just to scare her because she ended their relationship and stopped taking his calls.
“He told me that he was depressed and, when he called her to ask why she had ended the relationship, she told him she wanted to devote herself to her husband and children,” said A A. Prosecutors said that images taken from the defendant’s confiscated electronic devices were of other women and only some of them were inappropriate pictures.
No image relating to the woman was found. However, prosecutors said they had seen messages from the defendant to the victim where he was threatening her.
A verdict is expected on June 30.
salamir@thenational.ae
