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Man cleared of Burj blow up threat

An Indian businessman was cleared on Sunday by the Court of First Instance on the charge of threatening to blow up the Burj Khalifa if he did not get $1 million. The Public Prosecution may appeal the verdict within 15 days at the Court of Appeal.

According to prosecution records, the 38-year-old defendant, identified as J.F., sent the message with the threatening content to the mobile phone of an Emirati police major. The major, 34, told the prosecutor that around 4pm on February 5 last year, he received a text message. The content of the message read ‘tomoro burj Kaleefa blast arrange no arrange 1000000 dollar take’. The major reported the incident to the Dubai Police Operation Room.

In the investigation, a Pakistani employee of a hotel nightclub said J.F. and another man known as C. used to come to the club. About four months before the incident was reported, C. stopped visiting the club. The employee asked the defendant about C., but he denied having any information about him.

A relative to C., who also came to the night club, told the employee that he was jailed for a case. J.F. then claimed C would never come out of jail. About 15 days before the complaint, the nightclub employee saw J.F and C. at the venue on the same night. J.F was bragging that he was a big trader and had the power to put C. in the jail again.

J.F. then pointed at C. who was standing at a short distance. He told the employee that he had put C. in jail the first time when he sent an SMS to a mobile phone without saying whose phone it was.

The Public Prosecution enclosed to the case file a statement from Etisalat showing the SMS sent from J.F. to the police major’s mobile phone.

mary@khaleejtimes.com