Steamy Text Messages Lands Couple In Dubai JAIL

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A string of steamy text messages has resulted in a jail sentence for an Indian couple, local media announced Wednesday, in the latest case of passions clashing with the law in the cosmopolitan, yet occasionally conservative, Gulf city of Dubai.

The conviction said the sexual content of the texts suggested the unnamed pair planned to "commit sin" – a reference to an extramarital affair, which is illegal in the United Arab Emirates.

The pair, who worked as cabin crew for Emirates airlines, each were sentenced to three months in jail, said authorities. Court documents only gave their initials and their ages: 42 for her and 47 for him.

The court ruling said there was not enough evidence to determine whether the couple had an affair, which would have likely brought a harsher sentence.

The text messages surfaced in a divorce lawsuit by the woman's estranged husband.

A court in December sentenced the Indian couple to six months in jail followed by deportation, but an appeals court reduced the jail time and gave them the option to remain in the country.

It's not the first time that emotions have run afoul with authorities in Dubai, where the expatriate population exceeds the locals by more than 4-to-1. The city-state allows one of the most relaxed lifestyles in the Arab world, but officials can come down hard on those accused of pushing the limits of tolerance.

Earlier this week, a British couple said they will appeal a one-month jail sentence for exchanging a fiery kiss in a restaurant.

In 2008, two Britons were sentenced to three months in jail for what authorities described as sex on the beach. The sentences were later suspended.

Comments

[T-Faz]

09:50 AM on 03/18/2010

Why is Dubai digging its own grave and the thing is most if not all of this happens so there is not point in being harsh on such cases.

But if any of the girls caught in this are hot, I wouldnt mind giving her a few lashes if you know what I mean.

[MrSorme]

12:59 AM on 03/18/2010

Folks, these unfortunate stories of people being imprisoned for making sexual goo-goo eyes at each other are pathetic. No doubt about it. But the reactions are sad and even dangerous. Here we have people pushing their odd (to us) morals onto others. YET ...

1) We just gave a grown man in Iowa 6 months in prison for reading sexual comic books (Manga). I'm not making that up. He was threatened with 15 years, so he agreed to 6 months (though he committed no crime). The logic was that the cartoons appeared to be under age, which means he might rape in real life at any time (I wasn't aware that comics had official ages). And so we enter the age of the thought police. Where is your outrage?

2) A couple were having loud sex in their home late one night in Texas a couple years back. The neighbors called the police and, when the police looked in the window, saw they were having "nasty sex." They were arrested. Where is your outrage?

I could go on and on for thousands of pages. Murder, rape, religious fundamentalism, the takeover of the US by big business, Blackwater getting away with murder and then getting hired again so they can kill again. It never stops (and it's all home grown!) ... yet where is the outrage? Oh ... it's being aimed at Dubai.

[TXfemmom]

12:07 AM on 03/18/2010

Dubai wants a future as a resort destination and some place where people want to come to have a good time...perhaps they have shot themselves in the foot on that, as well.

Remember, GW and Cheney wanted to sell one of our major ports to Dubai.

[AirViceMarshalPark]

01:11 AM on 03/18/2010

Ever been outside the Plano city limits? It is a whole different world out there.

[Usama]

11:54 PM on 03/17/2010

Why do people living and enjoying the privileges of a country presume they are above the laws of that country just because they don'y like them? On what kind of arrogant exceptionalism is that based?

And aren't these the same people who shout to the heavens when Arabs in the West are awarded some kinds of privilege?

[Usama]

11:51 PM on 03/17/2010

Bigoted, yellow journalism reeks. In the last case of the British couple having sex on the beach in broad daylight, the policeman's word is qualified and discounted on behalf of the drunk British couple who barely knew each other and confessed?

BTW, adultery is illegal in several American states too. In Georgia you can be fined; and in Florida, you can be jailed and fined for committing adultery.

What's HP's deal with Dubai? An HP editor has an Israeli passport and was rejected at Dubai customs?

[LogicalMathMan]

08:31 PM on 03/17/2010

If western nations were to impose sanctions on Dubai, I do not know what we would sanction. Dubai has no oil, very little in terms of export and is merely the demon of the Mid East - having dotted it's environmentally-raped coastline with garishly tall buildings, which collectively have little aesthetic appeal because of the stark disparity in their designs.

As far as jurisprudence goes, this couple are Indian nationals working for the Emirate Airlines. The Emirate Airlines are owned primarily by Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with smaller stakes by Sharjah. The husband who brought this to the notice of the authorities is also an Indian. Is the presumption that sex is likely to occur, grounds for imprisonment? I wish the Indian government flexes its muscle and demands the release of this unfortunate couple. Then again, 80% of Dubai's labor pool (you know the ones who built the garish skyline) are from India, albeit the poorer parts of it.

I worked in Dubai in the early 70s and was an Indian citizen then (now a sometimes-proud US citizen). An Indian vendor was imprisoned for a month because he served an excessively hot curry to an influential sheik. Funny but tragic and true!

[infidel2]

08:28 PM on 03/17/2010

Seems like the fun never ends in Dubai, neither do the jail sentences, which is better than stoning or death, I guess.

[omobob]

07:57 PM on 03/17/2010

So much for a romantic destination resort. Kill that goose with the golden egg.

[deepfreezevideo]

06:17 PM on 03/17/2010

Can we please hurry up and turn off the oil spigot that enriches these pirates?
I've had enough of religious extremists of ALL KINDS, foreign AND domestic.
Haven't we ALL had enough?

[omobob]

07:59 PM on 03/17/2010

Dubai is oil poor for a ME nation. Dubai was built on bad loans not oil profits.

[TStringfellow]

09:28 PM on 03/17/2010

Dubai is not a nation, it is a city.

[deepfreezevideo]

09:54 PM on 03/17/2010

Good!

[Y2KCockroach]

05:14 PM on 03/17/2010

They can build all the glass towers, fake lakes, and artificial islands that they want, and they can do their best to try to become a world-class financial center, but nobody is going to want to travel to a theme park for the rich, set in the sixth century.........

[Joey Y]

06:09 PM on 03/17/2010

Exactly. A savage country with gold plating, where you are expected to bring your billions to support them, but live like some animal with no free will or civilized upbringing. That whole part of the world is a joke at this point.

[MrSorme]

12:40 AM on 03/18/2010

And you were there ... when?
And you have done a detailed study of their culture ... when?
Sadly, at the moment the joke is the US, which supplies weapons to any buyer with cash, whose government is bought and paid for by big business, whose prisons are loaded with tens of thousands of "evil" pot smokers, whose people are largely uneducated, whose military kills more foreign civilians than all other nations in the world combined, etc. etc. ad nauseam.
So, before attacking others with no information other than random (and always highly inaccurate) news tales, take a look in your own country's mirror.

[MikeDu]

04:39 PM on 03/17/2010

Why, again, are people visitng Dubai? The super-mega-rich looking for an ever-more decadent sty to wallow in, I guess.

[Hedonist88]

05:01 PM on 03/17/2010

boo hooo....

[MrSorme]

12:50 AM on 03/18/2010

I guess they visit Dubai and other places because they enjoy experiencing other cultures and enriching themselves with other modes of life and thought. Silly of them, I know.

I was in Dubai a couple years ago. I'm not rich, nor am I looking for an ever-more decadent sty to wallow in. I just enjoy adventure and reinforcing the fact that everyone loves their children and has feelings and sees the world in vast arrays of color ... just like we do.

Please educate yourself a bit before making comments like that, okay?

[lightningbolt]

04:09 PM on 03/17/2010

These tyrannical actions only reduce tourism to Dubai. They should not be surprised when their economy collapses. They shot themselves in the foot.

[MyVesta]

04:08 PM on 03/17/2010

Remind me why anybody wants to go there?

[Jimbo23]

04:03 PM on 03/17/2010

Anybody that would give Dubai a dime in tourist trade kind of brings this kind of thing on themselves...

[AirViceMarshalPark]

03:36 PM on 03/17/2010

The lesson here is to do your best to conform to local customs when visiting a foreign country, without violating your own sense of morality and ethics. This is, in most cases, very easy to do if you simply observe the standards followed by the locals. Nobody is asking you to permanently alter your behavior as you are only visiting.

I saw, in a village marketplace in an Islamic country, that it was rude to simply jump right into negotiations when buying something. One was expected to admire the merchandise while ignoring the thing that you wanted to buy; once you zeroed in on the object of your visit, it was perfectly OK to say that the thing was of excellent quality but beyond your poor ability to pay the price. This worked nicely to kick things off with the stall keeper and nobody was insulted.

[Paula Ann]

05:36 PM on 03/17/2010

ah, yes haggling......i do miss the souq

[AirViceMarshalPark]

12:53 AM on 03/18/2010

For friends of Rick...100 francs.