Threats woman wins court appeal

Jail term suspended for Briton who demanded money

DUBAI // The Court of Appeals has suspended the threemonth jail sentence handed to an unemployed British woman who threatened a compatriot and demanded he pay her Dh10,000.

In January this year, the Du- bai Criminal Court ordered the 31-year-old to be locked up after she was found guilty of issuing threats.

Prosecutors said she threatened her compatriot on May 26 last year at a nightclub on the Palm Jumeirah.

“Absolutely not,” said the woman as she denied the charge at an earlier hearing. She was granted bail while the court’s verdict was appealed.

The 37-year-old victim said in records that he met the defendant through a friend who told him she was looking for a job. He helped her find a position with the property company he worked for.

“Three weeks later, she was let go because she was not committed to work, but because she had already been paid three months’ salary in advance, she was requested to pay it back,” said the victim.

He added that the defendant left work in mid-April last year after which there was no contact between them until May 6 when he received a call from a man who spoke on her behalf.

“He spoke with a British ac- cent and demanded that I pay the defendant Dh10,000 within an hour or he would come to my apartment and break down the door then take the money,” said the victim, adding he was told to go to the nightclub where the woman would be waiting for him. The Appeal Court threw out the defendant’s jail term and gave her a suspended sentence on condition that the same offence is not repeated within three years.