A convicted blackmailer made menacing phone calls to a Middle Eastern general demanding the “return” of his daughter to Dundee – then made up a stolen gold plot to convince him to drop criminal charges.
Takeaway chef Karivan Mizuri was jailed in 2022 for attempting to extort £37,000 from the Iraqi officer by threatening to continue posting naked snaps of his adult daughter online.
The 33-year-old was this week back in court where he admitted making abusive calls to his target’s home in Iraq just days before Christmas 2023.
Perth Sheriff Court heard how, after he was locked up, Mizuri spoke on the phone to his family about persuading the general to drop charges by launching legal action against him.
Mizuri originally denied the allegations but pled guilty on the first day of his trial, after a jury was already balloted.
‘The girl’
Prosecutor Vicki Bell told the court Mizuri called the complainer at his home in Iraq on December 23 2023.
His daughter was in the room while the calls were played on loud speaker, she said.
“Both recognised the accused’s voice as he spoke to the complainer in Kurdish,” Ms Bell said.
The court heard how the woman had been in a student in Dundee but had moved back to her home in the west Asian country following Mizuri’s failed extortion plot.
During the call, Mizuri said: “Send her back. You can record this call and send to police. I’m not scared.”
The fiscal depute said he did not refer to the daughter by name but only as “the girl.”
He also told the general: “F*** your wife.”
Vile remarks about family members
Mizuri called again later that day, asking the father: “Have you thought about sending the girl back?”
“The accused made calls of a similar nature throughout the day,” said Ms Bell.
All were recorded using the daughter’s mobile phone, before being passed to police.
The general told Mizuri: “Leave us alone and don’t give us any more trouble.”
He replied: “Okay take care, take care of yourself.”
The complainer then told him: “My God, I’ll kick your ass this time. I will do what no one else has ever done.”
Mizuri responded: “I hope so,” before making a series of disgusting comments about the man’s family.
He told the man: “I will put my c*** in your mouth”.
When the man told him he was not afraid, Mizuri said: “Get my c*** out from between your wife’s legs,” before ending the call.
Framed
Mizuri was traced by police at his home in Mayfield Grove.
Ms Bell said: “During the interview, he made reference to his previous convictions and alluded to being framed, claiming he was innocent.”
He denied phoning the Iraqi residence and told police: “I find it strange you’d charge me with something you have no evidence for.”
In March 2024, while remanded in HMP Perth, Mizuri made several phone calls to his father in Dundee.
“He spoke in English and Kurdish,” said Ms Bell.
“During the calls spoken in Kurdish, the accused suggested engaging a Kurdish lawyer to raise a claim against (the complainer) about money they had allegedly stolen, up to $220,000 in varying amounts and a sum of gold.
“This was with a view to having the Kurdish solicitor draft up a paper to be signed by all parties, agreeing that the complainer and his daughter would withdraw their complaints and resolve matters out of court.”
On April 12, the Iraqi general got a call from his brother, telling him he had been contacted by Mizuri’s father, who had asked him to back down from the case.
Cultural struggles
Mizuri was sentenced to 47 months in prison in February 2022 after being convicted of the revenge porn plot and a campaign of abuse against the general’s daughter.
His jail time was backdated to when he was first taken into custody and he was released in February 2023.
Mizuri pled guilty to a single charge of threatening and abusive behaviour between December 23 2023 and March 5 2024, by making calls at his home and at Dundee’s Deewon Takeaway on Baluniefield Road.
The charge further states he instructed legal proceedings be raised against the complainer, and for contact to be made with him to ask him to withdraw his complaint.
He has been remanded on this new matter since March last year.
“It has been a struggle to get to this point today,” his solicitor Angela McLardy said.
“Mr Mizuri appears today as a broken man and I think the difficulties stem from differences in cultures and beliefs.”
She said: “He has struggled to understand particular aspects of Scots law.
“He has learned a lot since he has been in prison and he tells me there will be no repercussions of this type of behaviour.”
Sheriff William Wood deferred sentence for a post-custody supervision report.
“I do accept that there is a likely degree of cultural misunderstandings,” he said.
“But some of the remarks you made were so offensive they wouldn’t be acceptable in any culture.”
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