Abu Dhabi police arrested an African employee at a government department on charges of trying to extort a female colleague by publicizing her pictures unless she pays him Dh50,000. When he was seized, he claimed he was joking. The 33-year-old computer system analyst said he had obtained photos of his colleague from her computer at office and that he wanted to joke with her when he created an anonymous e-mail account to contact her. The 28-year-old woman, also a system analyst at the same department, had reported the e mail message to the police, who traced the account and arrested the defendant on extortion charges. “He confessed that he had obtained the photos seven months before committing his crime…he claimed he was just joking with his colleague,” said Colonel Rashid Mohammed Bursheed, head of Abu Dhabi’s CID.