A 38-year-old man has gone on trial charged with threatening to kill his sister.
Hassan Hassan, who is originally from Lebanon but has lived in Ireland for 12 years and is an Irish citizen, denies threatening to kill his sister, Rawaa Hassan, at her home in Dublin in August 2005.
Prosecutiing counsel Dominic McGinn told the jury of ten men and two women that Mr Hassan visited his sister at her home in Roselawn Crescent, Castleknock, on 9 August 2005.
Her husband and daughter were at home at the time. The prosecution says there was a row between Mr Hassan and his sister primarily over photos and videos of his children.
During the argument, the court heard, Mr Hassan forced his sister's husband and daughter out of the room. He then, according to the prosecution, made serious threats to his sister.
He allegedly said he would kill her and burn the house down. Ms Hassan and her family were in extreme fear and called the gardaí.
However, in her evidence, Rawaa Hassan said she was surprised to see gardai arrive at her house after she had a 'normal conversation' with her brother about photographs of his children.
She said that there was no need for the gardaí and she had not called them.
She also said her teenage daughter thought something was wrong because they were speaking loudly.
But she told the court her daughter does not understand Arabic and misunderstood the situation because she and her brother always spoke loudly in their native language.
The prosecution told the jury it does not have to prove that Mr Hassan intended to carry out his threats, but only that he made them and that he intended her to believe he intended to carry them out.
