Dubai: A student has been cleared of threatening to publish photographs of a 17-year-old girl whom he met on Facebook. They were supposed to get engaged.

Citing lack of corroborated evidence, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the 22-year-old Iranian student, A.K., of threatening to disgrace his countrywoman.

Records said the couple met on Facebook and they communicated for a while before things turned sour when her mother refused to allow them to get engaged in 2013.

When A.K. showed up in court, he denied threatening to disgrace the girl on Facebook by publishing her photos if she refused to resume dating him.

According to the ruling, presiding judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi fined A.K. Dh2,000 for sending offensive SMSs to her mobile phone and exploiting the telecommunication services.

According to the charge sheet, the student threatened to dishonour his countrywoman on Facebook and cursed her mother and family via offensive text messages. He was also accused of harassing the girl by misusing the telecommunication services.

“I did not threaten her at all,” argued A.K. when he defended himself in court.

The 17-year-old testified to prosecutors that their relationship developed over Facebook and they agreed to get engaged.

“Our relationship lasted nearly six months and then he was supposed to come to meet my mother to get engaged. My mother rejected him claiming that I was still young… then she asked me to stop seeing him because he comes from an inappropriate family. When I broke up with him, he got angry. He continuously annoyed me, then started threatening to dishonour me on Facebook… he said that he would upload my photos on Facebook and say bad things about me if I refused to date him. He cursed my mother and brother and called them names… I asked him to stop annoying me. At first I did not want to report him to the police because I did not want any trouble. I ignored him for nearly five months, but when things escalated and he overdid it, I informed my mother. Then we reported the matter to the police,” claimed the girl.

The Iranian mother said her daughter and the suspect disagreed before they broke up.