Dubai: A salesman lost his appeal and will be jailed for three months for sending SMSs to his ex-fiancee threatening to publish their sex tape on social media if she married someone else.

The 32-year-old Lebanese salesman had threatened to kill the 27-year-old Iranian woman and to post on Facebook and WhatsApp a video of them together that he secretly recorded in May 2014.

In February, the Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the Lebanese defendant to three months in jail for threatening the Iranian [who was his co-worker] verbally and in writing.

The couple were tried and jailed by a Sharjah Court for having consensual sex.

The defendant appealed his primary ruling before the Appeal Court where he renewed his not guilty plea and asked to be acquitted.

On Sunday, presiding judge Rashid Al Sumairi rejected the defendant’s appeal and upheld his three-month imprisonment.

The accused will be deported following the completion of his jail term.

Meanwhile the mobile phone [that contained the video] will be confiscated.

The Lebanese sent SMSs to the woman in which he threatened to kill her and post the video if she married someone else or if she dated someone else.

The Iranian testified that when the defendant was her manager at work, they became close and were engaged for some time.

“Once I discovered that he was married and has two children, I broke up our engagement. Thereafter, he threatened to publish my private photos and a video that he claimed to have recorded of us together and threatened to kill me if I didn’t marry him. We were friends at work, then became lovers and we got engaged. We went to parties and restaurants. I lent him Dh30,000 to pay for his father’s operation when the latter fell ill in Lebanon. We had a fight and I left him once I realised that he had lied to me. He called me persistently and sent me annoying SMSs. In one SMS, he threatened to kill me if I didn’t marry him. He also threatened to upload my photos on WhatsApp. When I complained to the police, I informed them that I had not done anything to provoke him and I didn’t know why he had threatened me,” she said.

A police lieutenant said when the Iranian visited the police station, she asked them to summon the defendant first.

“She asked the police to make him sign an undertaking that he would stop stalking her and would delete the sex video. She said the Lebanese had threatened to show the video to her family. During questioning, the defendant claimed that they were engaged and then broke up after they had a fight. He said the video showed them having sex at her flat in Sharjah and then he deleted it. He claimed he recorded the video without her knowledge,” testified the lieutenant.

Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.