Three cleared of blackmail charges

DUBAI // A translator and two friends were acquitted this morning of threatening and blackmailing a man.

The Algerian translator NJ, 36; the Emirati Naturalisation and Residency Department official MS, 29; and the Ministry of Interior lieutenant HH, 31, also Emirati, were charged in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance with issuing threats, blackmail and impersonating a public official.

Advocate Saeed Al Ghailani, who is representing them, told the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance that NJ was involved with a man named KM who promised to marry her.

According to her statement to prosecutors, KM asked her for Dh2,000, which she wired to him on April 25. After KM received the money, he cut off his phone service and disappeared, the court was told.

Prosecutors said NJ, helped by MS and HH, tracked down a person named KM using the Federal Criminal Record System. But, the court was told, it was the wrong man.

They were accused of trying to blackmail KM into giving them Dh2,000. But Mr Al Ghailani told the court his clients did not intend any harm and said they had made a mistake.

"We have obtained a letter of dismissal of the complaint by the victim and he has dropped the charges against my clients," he said.

salamir@thenational.ae