Blackmailer's jail term reduced by 1 year

Feb 06, 2013 (Khaleej Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A 25-year-old Emirati man, who allegedly threatened a fellow country woman of circulating her personal photos on the internet if she did not pay him Dh20,000, has had his jail sentence commuted from two years to one year by the Court of Appeal.

The Court of First Instance found the defendant, a jobless, guilty of blackmailing the woman and handed him a two-year imprisonment, in December last year.

According to prosecution records, the accused stole the woman's two mobile phones after sneaking into her house, and then threatened to circulate the photos stored in her phone if she did not pay him Dh20,000.

The complainant, a 23-year-old working woman, told the prosecutor that one night, in September 2011, the defendant sneaked into her bedroom in her villa in the new Oud Al Muttaina area when she was in the bathroom. It was about 3.30am and she was surprised when she received a phone call from her own mobile number and thought that it was one of her cousins.

When she came out of the bathroom she found that her mobile phone was stolen.

Other things were also missing including her bag, a mobile phone (with no SIM card), and other belongings of her aunt too including a laptop and a watch.

She was surprised by the accused sending her SMS text messages threatening to circulate her photos on the internet if she did not pay him Dh20,000.

The police laid a trap to arrest the accused when he came to pick up an envelope with the money, which the complainant had left beneath a power cable in Oud Al Muttaina.

A police corporal said that when the defendant tried to speed away in his car to escape from the police, he rammed it into a lamp post but still managed to escape but his friend, who was accompanying him, was arrested and denied having anything to do with the incident.

The verdict can be appealed within 30 days at the Court of Cassation.

___ (c)2013 the Khaleej Times (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) Visit the Khaleej Times (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) at www.khaleejtimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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