Suitor threatened acid attack if woman refused marriage proposal

The criminal court heard that the defendant also called the victim's mother and brother with threats to kill her and disfigure her face with acid.

DUBAI// A lovestruck man threatened to kill or throw acid on the face of a woman if she did not accept his marriage proposal.

Canadian G A, 30, told the Criminal Court that defendant M A, 43, from Afghanistan, had made the threats while she was in London last October.

“He proposed to me over the phone, he tried to charm his way to my heart by saying that he was powerful and wealthy,” she said.

“Afterwards, the defendant started threatening me if I refused his proposal, saying that he would hire someone from Afghanistan to kill me.”

She said she later returned to Dubai, where M A started phoning her again, although she refused to answer.

The victim’s mother, K A, 46, said she too had received calls from M A.

She said: “He told me that he loved my daughter and he would commit suicide by jumping from a building if he couldn’t marry her. He kept requesting that I convince my daughter to marry him.

“In another call, the defendant started threatening me. He said he would distort our family’s reputation in Dubai, while in another phone call he threatened to spray my daughter’s face with acid.

“He said her face would be burnt and no one would marry her,” said K A.

The victim’s brother, H A, 26, was also plagued by calls from the defendant at the family’s restaurant in Dubai.

“The defendant threatened to burn the face of my sister using acid. He threatened to burn her house and said that he would kill her if she didn’t marry him,” said H A.

The defendant denied the charges. The next hearing will take place on March 20.