Woman blackmailer to be tried

Manama: The rare public case of blackmail by a woman against a man in Saudi Arabia has been forwarded to the public prosecution. The refusal of the victim, a Saudi national in his 50s, to drop the charges against the blackmailer, a woman in her 30s, has ruled out an-out-of-court settlement and paved the way for a trial, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Tuesday.

The woman, whose identity was not revealed, was arrested this month on charges of threatening to post a man’s naked picture on the internet if he failed to hand her 2,350,000 Saudi riyals (Dh2.3 million; $626,533). However, the blackmail victim alerted the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Al Ahsa in western Saudi Arabia about the woman’s threats and he was advised to pretend to agree to give her the money. According to the plan, the man met the woman and handed her the money, prompting the Commission to intervene and to catch her red-handed. She was transferred to the competent authorities to continue their investigation, the report said.

In similar cases involving blackmail, the Saudi police last week arrested two men in separate incidents for threatening an Omani girl and a Saudi student currently in Canada.

In the first case, the Saudi man used private pictures he had of a young Saudi woman in Canada to blackmail her into sending him money and buying him the latest technological inventions.

Failure to respond to his demands would result in her pictures being circulated on the internet and sent to her family, he threatened her, local Arabic daily Okaz reported.

The student refused to bow to the threats and alerted the Saudi authorities, giving them the blackmailer’s mobile numbers and contacts. The blackmailer was arrested.

In the second case, an Omani girl complained to the police that an Arab national had threatened to post her private pictures on the web unless she offered him money and gifts.

The young woman said that she initially transferred money into his account and offered him gifts. However, when she realised that the blackmailer was not satiated and that he wanted more money and gifts, she took her case to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

The blackmailer was ambushed and confronted with evidence of the bank transactions. Pictures of the Omani girl were found on his mobile, the Saudi daily said.

The Saudi and Arab face blackmail and extortion charges.