Posted on 03/18/2010 1:26:04 AM PDT by myknowledge
DUBAI, March 17, 2010 (AFP) - Two Emirates Airline cabin crew in Dubai were given three-month jail terms for exchanging sexy text messages, a local daily reported on Wednesday. The then-married flight attendant, 42, and her male supervisor, 47, were convicted of "coercion to commit sin," the National daily reported court documents as saying.
It said the pair -- both Indian -- were earlier sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by deportation, but an appeals court last week reduced the jail time and dropped the expulsion penalty.
The court concluded there was not enough evidence to prove that the unidentified pair had actually been sexually involved, the paper added.
The messages were exposed during a bitter divorce battle between the attendant and her husband that began in 2007, the daily said.
It said the divorce court had ordered Dubai's telecommunications company, Etisalat, to produce the text messages after the husband accused his wife of an affair.
Etisalat provided copies of SMS messages in October 2008, allowing the husband to file a "criminal complaint" against his wife, the paper said.
The court also handed a three-month jail term to the attendant's sister for perjury, after she claimed she had been having the affair and had been using her sister's telephone.
The attendant's husband has since gained custody of the couple's four-year-old son after the divorce was finalised, the paper reported.
Dubai, a regional tourist hub with a large non-Muslim expatriate population and the Gulf's most liberal social policies, nevertheless continues to apply strict rules based on Islamic Sharia law.
A British pair await a final verdict from Dubai's appeals court next month to find out if they will serve a one-month jail sentence over charges of kissing in public.
A British mother-of-two lost custody of her children and was jailed for three months last year on adultery charges filed by her then Egyptian husband.
The Indian flight steward and stewardess are not exempt.
No one is exempt.
Dubai is one of the most modern cities on the planet as far as infrastructure, buildings, etc. They’ve built stunning hotels and such to attract tourists. And they arrest a couple for kissing in public? HUH? Sounds like a dangerous place to spend a honeymoon.
MM
The UAE’s Islamic laws are not to be ignored.
There was a very interesting National Geographic article a few months ago about Singapore. How it has developed into such a modern and wealthy place with no natural resources (except a bunch of swamp land).
But - it also came at a price on liberties and freedoms. But, as one person said IIRC “Other places may have more freedom, but what sort of freedom is that if I am worried about getting mugged when I step outside?” (Hard to say if that is a reasoned thought or just Singaporese (sp??) propoganda.)
The article was from about the time of the Haiti earthguake. What a contrast of two places that had both been “freed” from their European masters at about the same time I would imagine. (Although I think Haiti had a head start ???)
Well in this case even sms anwhere + proxy wouldn’t have helped because they still would have the msgs at the end user/receiver level.
or it would have helped a little.
tl;dr going to bed
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.