Dubai: A salesman has been jailed for three months for sending text messages 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 publish a video of them together that he secretly recorded on Facebook and WhatsApp in May 2014.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of threatening the Iranian woman [who was his co-worker] verbally and in writing.
The couple were tried and jailed by a Sharjah Court for having consensual sex.
The Lebanese defendant had pleaded not guilty.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the defendant’s mobile phone will be confiscated and he will be deported after serving his jail term.
The accused sent SMSs to the woman in which he threatened to kill her and publish the video if she married someone else or if she dated someone else.
The woman testified that when the Lebanese was her manager at work, they became close and were engaged for a period of time.
“Once I discovered that he had been lying to me and that he is married and has two children, I decided to break up our engagement. Since then, 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 met at work and we were friends and then lovers and were 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 decided to leave him once I realised that he had been lying 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 stalk her and would delete the sex video. The woman stated that the Lebanese had threatened to show the video to her family. During questioning, the suspect 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 recoded the video without her knowledge,” testified the lieutenant.
Tuesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
