Dubai: A man has been accused of sending a text message to the mobile phone of his ex-girlfriend’s mother threatening to kill the young woman if she didn’t return the value of gifts he had bought her when they were in love.

The 23-year-old suspect was said to have been in a two-year-long love affair with the 27-year-old woman — both Chinese — before she called it off in January following several misunderstandings. The man pestered his former girlfriend several times in unsuccessful attempts to convince her to revive their relationship, according to records, before things turned worse when he started threatening her.

The suspect was believed to have repeatedly hassled his ex-girlfriend over the phone and went knocking at her door and every time he did so, he allegedly threatened to kill her if she did not return the value of the gifts he had purchased for her during their courtship.

The woman dodged her ex-boyfriend several times until one day in May this year when he went to her house and after she refused to answer the door, he sent an iMessage, a text sent through Apple’s iMessage app, to her mother’s phone in which he said he would kill her daughter if she didn’t resolve the matter between them within 24 hours.

The man was apprehended shortly after the woman reported him to the police.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of threatening in writing to kill the 27-year-old woman.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspect sent an iMessage to the mother’s phone and in which he wrote ‘If she doesn’t resolve the matter by tomorrow, she’ll be killed ... I’ll kill you’.

The suspect pleaded not guilty when he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday and accused the claimant of bringing this case out of malice against him.

His lawyer argued before presiding judge Mohammad Jamal that the woman’s claims were all baseless and unfounded and that she had fabricated this case against him because she owed him money that she hasn’t repaid him yet.

According to the lawyer’s defence argument, the woman took the suspect’s flat that she rented out and never gave him the proceeds and she did the same thing when she also took his mother’s car, rented it and did not pay him the proceeds.

The claimant constantly blackmailed the suspect and threatened to report him to the police whenever he asked her for the money that she owed him, contended the lawyer, who asked the court to acquit the suspect.

The woman testified to prosecutors that the suspect constantly hassled her and pressured her to resume their relationship once she ditched him.

“He constantly created trouble for me ... until March when he asked me to return to him all the gifts that he had presented to me. In May, he came to my place and I didn’t attend his calls or answer the door. A few days later, he sent the iMessage to my mother’s phone and threatened to kill me. Thereafter I reported him to the police,” she claimed to prosecutors.

The suspect was quoted as admitting to prosecutors that he threatened the woman.

A ruling will be heard next month.