Man jailed for blackmail, threat charges following workmate’s suicide

dubai — A man, who threatened a workmate with compromising photos while demanding a smartphone from him, has been sentenced to six months in jail after the Court of First Instance found him guilty of criminal threatening and blackmail.

The 23-year-old Pakistani worker was arrested by the police following the suicide of the victim. The public prosecution charged the defendant after they established a link between the two men in a suicide note found in the scene where the victim’s body was found. The victim left behind a suicide note and it unravelled later how he had been intimidated by the defendant.

According to the court ruling, the accused will be deported. The court documents show that a Filipino hanged himself from a ceiling in the bathroom of his accommodation in Al Qusais in June 2017. His suicide note demanded that a man be arrested, referring to him only by his initials.

The case dates back to July 29, 2017. Through investigation, the police tracked the defendant, the deceased’s colleague, whose initials were the same as left on the note.

During interrogation, the accused admitted that he had threatened the victim with intimate photos of him with another man. He confessed that he had got the photos from that other man and later used them as a way to blackmail the victim. He had been pushing him into buying a smart phone for him or he would circulate those indecent pictures online. Prosecution investigators found that he had even sent him those photos on WhatsApp.

The ruling can be appealed.