Dubai: A man has been accused of threatening to dishonour an employee and circulate his nude photos via WhatsApp if he didn’t pay him Dh18,400 and give him a diamond ring.
The 33-year-old Tunisian man, K.M., was said to have deceived the Emirati employee on InstaMessage by posing as a woman and convincing him to send his naked photos.
After the Emirati did so, the suspect is believed to have threatened to publish the nude photos through WhatsApp in case he did not pay him Dh18,400 and give him a diamond ring in December.
Law enforcement officers arrested the defendant in a sting operation at a mall in Mirdif.
K.M. pleaded not guilty and denied his accusations when he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspect exploited the telecommunications system [WhatsApp] and attempted to obtain the cash and the ring under extortion and threatening to dishonour the Emirati.
“I did not do any of that,” the suspect told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi in courtroom seven.
The 35-year-old employee testified to prosecutors that he befriended a supposedly Lebanese woman called Sandy on InstaMessage.
“She sent me nude photos claiming to be hers and asked me to send her my nude photos. I refused at first, but then I agreed upon her persistence. She claimed to me that she would erase the photos as soon as she sees them. Two weeks later, I contacted her and asked her to delete the photos but she refused. When I asked her why she wanted to keep them, she said I would know soon. Later she informed me that she had accessed all my personal details and connections via LinkedIn. She downloaded my photo from LinkedIn and created a Facebook page bearing my name… she uploaded my nude photos on that page to make it seem that I had set up that page. She also posted my full name and workplace on the created Facebook page after she got the details from my LinkedIn account. Then she threatened to make the page public on Facebook in case I did not give her a diamond ring and wire her [$5,000] to Lebanon. Thereafter I reported the matter to the police,” the Emirati claimed to prosecutors.
A police lieutenant testified to prosecutors that K.M. was arrested in a sting operation.
“During questioning, the suspect admitted that he cheated the employee after pretending to be the woman and communicated with him on social media. The Tunisian also claimed that initially he demanded $100,000 not to publish the photos before they agreed on $5,000. Police discovered that the woman turned out to be the suspect after his arrest. It had been claimed that the suspect was supposedly the woman’s friend who went to collect the money,” claimed the lieutenant.
The defendant’s lawyer will present his defence on February 1.
