Facebook gets Dubai manager into trouble

A manager was convicted of posting intimidating texts on his Facebook page and threatening to defame his female colleague if she testified against him in a labour court. The Dubai Court of First Instance handed the 42-year-old Emirati manager a three-month suspended imprisonment for threatening his 24-year-old countrywoman verbally and in writing. "The jail term will be suspended for three years conditioning that the accused, M.H., does not repeat his crime within the three-year period," said Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad in courtroom seven on Thursday. Gulf News has learnt that M.H. was granted a suspended jail term showing leniency due to the circumstances of the case. Intimidation Prosecutors accused M.H., a former Emiratisation manager, of posting intimidating texts on his Facebook page and threatening 24-year-old M.A. to defame her and her family if she testified against him before the Dubai Labour Court. The defendant said in court that no woman will force him into marrying her and stressed he would tie the knot with a woman he loves and not under coercion. "I am getting married [he already did] and there is no power on earth that would prevent me from doing so. The claimant's [M.A.] allegations were fabricated. She malevolently lodged her complaint to intimidate me to marry her. But I am marrying someone else. She fabricated this case against me because I didn't surrender to her desire and marry her," M.H. argued in court. According to the charge sheet, M.H. cursed and libelled against M.A. on Facebook. He also posted on Facebook text in which he disclosed secrets and private life matters concerning the woman and her family. ‘Spiteful' When asked by the Presiding Judge about the nature of his relationship with the claimant, M.H. replied: "I was the former Emiratisation manager in a business group. The claimant had graduated from the higher college of technology. I met her in the UAE Career Fair. Then I hired her to work for the group. Her claims are spiteful." Court records showed that there is a labour lawsuit between M.H. and his employer [the business group]. The woman testified that the incident surfaced after M.H. started misbehaving with his colleagues at the business group. "We complained against M.H. to the administration. He got fired."