Dubai: A driver, who blackmailed a woman saying that he would show a video of her having sex with another man to her father if she did not meet him, has been jailed for six months. He has also been fined Dh250,000 for misusing the telecommunication system to threaten the woman.

The 25-year-old Syrian woman became friends with her 35-year-old countryman driver on Facebook in 2014 and chatted over the phone.

The couple remained friends for some time but the friendship got drifted until the driver contacted her again in October 2015.

The Syrian man repeatedly asked the woman to meet up over an issue which he claimed to be very personal and important.

Despite the man’s repeated attempts to convince the woman to meet him, she refused until the day when he sent her a message claiming he had seen a video on the internet of her having sex with a man.

Records said the man did not yield to the woman’s rejection and kept asking her to meet him to discuss the issue.

Then he texted her threatening to show the video to her father and post it online but she reported him to the police.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of abusing the telecommunication system and threatening to defame the woman.

Presiding judge Urfan Omar fined the defendant Dh250,000.

The accused had pleaded not guilty in court.

He argued that they were friends and later their relationship developed into something serious.

“Then I discovered the video of her on the internet. When I asked to meet her to discuss that issue, she refused,” he said in court.

The 25-year-old woman testified that she and the accused were only friends.

“We stopped communicating towards the end of 2014. In October 2015, he asked to meet me but I refused. He called me repeatedly and annoyed me with calls and SMSes. I refused to meet him. Until one day he claimed that he had to see me for a very private and dangerous matter related to my honour … he said he had seen what he described as a shameful video of me having sex with a man. Convinced that he was lying, I refused to meet him. Then I told him to send me the link of that video if he was serious and honest … and he never did. He said he would only show me the video if I agreed to meet him. Thereafter, he blackmailed me and sent me SMSes of offensive nature. He threatened me over the phone that he would show the footage to my father and upload it online if I refused to see him,” she said.

The 35-year-old admitted to prosecutors that he had spoken to the woman about the video over the phone and via SMS.

Thursday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.