Suspended jail term for Dubai man who threatened to post nude pictures of ex-fiancee

Man who threatened to post pictures of his ex-fiancee naked onto the internet is given a suspended one-year jail term.

DUBAI // A man who threatened to post naked pictures of his ex-fiancee on the internet has been given a suspended one-year jail term.

The Criminal Court ordered the man to be deported immediately and also ordered that all images and clips be deleted from a memory card confiscated from him on the day of his arrest.

During his trial the court heard MZ, 26, demanded his ex-fiancee pay him Dh15,000 in return for the photos and two movie clips which he took while the two were engaged. He said he would post the images on Facebook if she did not comply.

Police arrested him at a coffee shop at International City as he met the woman to take the money.

The man claimed in his defence that the woman made up the allegation because she was jealous that he had taken a new fiancée in Syria, and that when he broke up with his new fiancée she agreed to drop the charges. He provided the court with a copy of an official waiver from the woman.

He said that he confessed during a police interrogation only because he was forced to do so.

"I have never been to a police station in my entire life and when I was detained, I was threatened and beaten by police, so I said what they wanted me to say just to get over with the abuse," he said.

He said he met the woman three years ago and the pair became engaged but broke up due to differences in religion.

"She is the one who started threatening me and wanted to take revenge because we broke up," he told the court.

He said he left Syria and came to Dubai six months ago to look for a job after the job market in Syria collapsed due to the political conditions and three months later, the woman followed him to Dubai and demanded to talk to him and see him.

"I met with her and later we chatted on Facebook, she neglected the whole conversation and provided police with a small part in which we talked about the fact that I still have pictures of her and about her wish to take them back," he said.

"I admit having about 140 of her pictures and two pornographic clips which she willingly allowed me to take or even gave me while we were engaged," he added.

He said she became jealous and made up the allegations when he was engaged to another woman. "When she knew that my new engagement was over, she dropped the charges," he said.