Expat gets 1 year in jail, Dh21,000 fine over Snapchat threats

Abu Dhabi - He asked the victim to send him inappropriate photos.

An Asian expat, who threatened a young woman via Snapchat and forced her to send him inappropriate photos, will serve one year suspended jail term and pay Dh21,000 temporary compensation to the victim, before being deported.
The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation turned down the accused's appeal against his conviction and upheld earlier rulings by lower courts that found the man guilty of violating online laws and intimidating the woman.
The police arrested the man after the woman, in her early 20s, filed a complaint against him.
In her complaint, the victim said that she had received many messages from the man in which he asked her to send inappropriate photos to him. She said that through Snapchat, the man also threatened to hurt her if she didn't follow his instructions.
The woman also showed police the threatening messages she received from the accused and also gave them the man's Snapchat account number.
The woman said she was mentally tortured by him and requested authorities to punish the accused.
The prosecutor had charged the man with threatening the woman and violating online laws.
Both the Criminal Court of First Instance and the Appeal Court had sentenced the man after finding him guilty of the charges.
He went to Abu Dhabi's top court challenging the verdicts and stressing that he was wrongly convicted.
The judge, however, rejected his appeal and maintained earlier rulings based on the evidence presented by prosecutors.
- ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi