Dubai: A manager has been accused of threatening to expose nude photos of a woman, who was expected to become his fiancé, over social media networks if she didn’t sleep with him.
The 45-year-old Syrian manager, A.A., was said to have asked his sister to introduce him to the Saudi woman as a potential fiancé.
The defendant was also said to have obtained a number of partly nude photos of the woman while they communicated for a period of time over Blackberry Messenger and Skype.
Prosecutors accused A.A. of threatening to publish the woman’s indecent photos on YouTube, Geek, Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks if she refused to strip for him and have sex with him.
The suspect entered a not guilty plea when he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.
“I did not threaten her… I did not do that,” argued the defendant.
“What about the messages that you sent to her? Why did you behave like that?” presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat asked the suspect.
With regretful voice, A.A. replied: “Subhan Allah [Praise to God]… I don’t know. I did not do it. The messages were already there… she wanted to benefit financially from me. I did not ask her to strip.”
According to the accusation sheet, prosecutors said the defendant blackmailed the Saudi woman and threatened to use the social media networks to publish her nude photos if she did not strip for him on Skype and fly in to Dubai to have sex with her.
A lieutenant at Dubai Police’s cyber crime section testified to prosecutors that the Saudi complained against A.A. in June 2013.
“She emailed her complaint in which she alleged that the incident happened after she got acquainted to the defendant’s sister. She claimed that she and the sister became good friends… the latter told her that A.A. wanted to get engaged to her because he loved her photos on BBM. The woman also mentioned that she exchanged photos with the sister. After she and the suspect chatted for a while on Skype, according to the Saudi’s email complaint, A.A. used to take snapshots of her. She claimed that she surrendered to his threats and striped on Skype after he threatened to publish her photos on social media networks. Finally she decided to email her complaint after he asked her to come to the UAE to sleep with her,” claimed the lieutenant.
Records said the defendant was arrested in a mall in Tuwar.
The suspect was cited admitting that he threatened to expose the woman’s nude photos after she broke up with him.
A police sergeant testified to prosecutors that the defendant claimed he intimidated the woman because he suffered a mental breakdown after she broke up with him.
A ruling will be heard later this month.
