The Court of Cassation has endorsed a General Court verdict to sentence a man who blackmailed a woman with her photos to five years in prison and 5,000 lashes. The two broke up after being involved in an old relationship. The court ruling ordered the man to return all original photos to the woman, warning him not to publish them in any medium. The man was arrested after the woman's brother reported him to the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, commonly known as the Haya. The woman was said to have sent him the photos during their relationship. The man's cell phone was found to have threatening SMSs to the woman. In a separate incident in the Eastern Province too, the Haya arrested a 26-year-old man for threatening a woman to publish her photos online if she did not have sexual intercourse with him. Authorities raided the man's house and found empty bottles of liquor, memory cards with porno movie clips, the woman's photos, and threatening SMSs to other women as well, said Muhammad Al-Marshood, chief of the Haya Office in the Eastern Province.
