DUBAI // A company general manager was sentenced to six months in jail for threatening to post a video of his friend’s ex-wife in a state of undress online if she did not agree to marry him.
The 39-year-old Egyptian started a business with his countrywoman, 34, after she divorced his friend.
The two then fell in love and the manager asked the woman to marry him, but she refused when she found out it was an Urfi marriage, an informal arrangement well known in Egypt where a couple can write that they are married on a paper and call it a marriage contract. If they want a divorce, they simply tear up the paper.
The defendant threatened to kidnap the woman’s children and kill them then threatened to post some video clips online showing her naked, Dubai Criminal Court was told.
The manager denied issuing death threats but told the court he did threaten to post the videos because the woman owed him money.
He will be deported after serving his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
