Blackmail attempt used criminal records, prosecutors say

Three people are accused of trying to shake down man for Dh2,000.

DUBAI // A translator threatened and blackmailed a man after she got his criminal records through a police officer friend, a Dubai court was told this morning.

The 36-year-old Algerian NJ denied before the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance getting the records, then forcing the victim to give her Dh2,000. MS, 29, an employee at the Naturalization and Residency Department, denied divulging secrets after prosectors said he provided NJ with details about KM between April 28 to May 20.

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Prosecutors say NJ and HH, a 31-year-old Emirati police officer, conspired to blackmail KM, whose name and nationality were not given. Prosecutors say she told KM she would set herself on fire in her car in front of his house and frame him for her death.

She also was charged with misusing communications by calling and insulting KM.

HH will be separately referred to the Court of Misdemeanours on charges he posed as a senior CID officer.

KM testified that NJ sent him a text message telling him her father was sick and she needed Dh2,000 she had loaned him to return to Algeria.

"I didnt know her, and then she told me to say hello to my wife by name, which surprised me how she knew my wife," he said.

He said she then sent him an image of his criminal record.

The next hearing will be on July 17.