DUBAI // A man will spend three months in jail after he was found guilty of threatening a woman he met on social media and blackmailing her into paying him US$2,000 (Dh7,300).
The woman, who lives in Gaza, sent an email to Dubai Police on February 15 last year telling officers how she had met the 27-year-old Egyptian on Facebook.
The two started chatting on Skype and the woman sent the man, who lives in Dubai, pictures of her on WhatsApp.
Shortly after she received a threatening message from him demanding that she wire him money or he would post her private pictures online.
She sent him $2,000 but he asked for more and gave her a few days to pay.
“I decided then to write to -police about him,” the woman said.
Police visited the man’s workplace but were told he had been arrested for fighting with one of his colleagues. He was later found at his home and questioned by officers.
Several conversations between him and the woman were found on his laptop and smartphone. Police also found a receipt for a money transfer.
In court last month the Egyptian denied charges of issuing threats and blackmail. But he was convicted and sentenced to three months in jail.
salamir@thenational.ae
