Dubai: A clerk has been jailed for three months for cursing his stewardess friend and threatening her on WhatsApp to shame her if she didn’t help him get hired at her workplace.
The Egyptian stewardess, who works for a national carrier, became friends with her 30-year-old countryman while he was working as a clerk at Etisalat in November 2016.
The woman had visited an Etisalat booth at a mall to buy a phone and after chatting with the man while doing her transaction, they became friends.
The woman befriended him and they went out with friends until the day when he told her that he had fallen in love with her.
Then when he proposed to her, she told him that she was not ready for a commitment as she had recently divorced and asked him to stay as her friend and see how their relationship would develop.
When the defendant lost his job at Etisalat, he asked his countrywoman to help him get hired at the national carrier where she works.
Once she noticed that he had been chasing her in car and constantly texting her in an attempt to talk her in to marriage, she rejected his proposal.
Then when he became a constant nuisance and stalked her, she ordered him to stay away.
He sent her a WhatsApp message in which he threatened to shame her in front of her family and ex-husband pressuring her to help him get hired at her workplace, and called her bad names.
The woman reported the matter to the police who apprehended the 30-year-old clerk.
On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of cursing his countrywoman via WhatsApp and threatening to tarnish her reputation.
The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges. “She owes me Dh40,000 that she didn’t pay back. I texted her on WhatsApp saying that she would not enjoy any nice day anymore because I was planning to report her to the police,” he argued in court.
The accused will be deported.
The stewardess said the accused became uncontrollable shortly after she turned down his marriage proposal.
“He blackmailed me and threatened to shame me before my family and ex-husband,” she said.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal.
