Woman blackmailed over ‘sex video’

dubai — A Syrian man went on trial on Monday at the Dubai Court of First Instance, accused of threatening and blackmailing a compatriot woman with what he claimed was a ‘compromising’ video of her.

The court heard the 35-yearold driver harassed the complainant with phone calls and text messages on multiple occasions to lure her into meeting him to show her the ‘sex video’.

“I met him on Facebook about three years prior to the complaint. Our communication stopped for a while before he got in touch with me again. He called me in August 2015 to say that he came across a video of me online. He alleged the video was of me having sex with someone. After I ignored his calls, he texted me that I would have to see him or he would show the video to my father and circulate it online,” the 25-yearold complainant said.

The Crime Lab report showed there were as many as 104 text messages exchanged between the two.

The accused admitted during the investigation that he called the complainant and sent her text messages multiple times, demanding to meet her to talk about the purpoted sex video. The relevant messages were sent from August 2015 up to October the same year.

The investigating prosecutor examined the messages and found some had threatening content. In other messages, the driver was requesting to meet the complainant.