DUBAI // A 27-year-old man accused of threatening to kill a woman and her family if she did not marry him has been found not guilty by Dubai Criminal Court.
M A, an Afghan, said that it was, in fact, the British woman who threatened him after he ended their engagement.
Hostess N S, 24, told prosecutors that she had received several harassing calls from the defendant and in one particular call he allegedly threatened to kill her and her family if she did not marry him.
“I didn’t want to marry him because he had a criminal record,” said the woman, who added that the defendant sent her brother, who lives in the UK, a voice message stating that he would kill her if he saw her.
“When he got detained in this case he called me from inside the detention centre, and said that if I did not drop the charges I would find out what he was capable of.”
But in court in November two friends of the Afghan said the woman was looking to marry him and that she was the one making threats.
“She called him many times and he would not answer most of her calls but, when he did, she threatened to have him deported because she carries a British passport,” said Iranian witness H.
He and another Iranian witness, A K, said their friend had been engaged to the woman for almost a year before they broke up, leading her to pursue the relationship.
“She even called me, and when I answered her she was telling me how she loved him and she wanted to marry him.
“I promised her that I would inform him of her feelings,” H said in court.
Both men gave similar testimonies, saying that the Afghan grew afraid after several threatening calls from the hostess and so made a complaint against her to the police.
The court found M A not guilty.
salamir@thenational.ae