It's common knowledge worldwide that what some people may see as acceptable behaviour or may tolerate in some parts of the world, is frowned on and even illegal in the UAE. There are also those things which are also not acceptable anywhere in the world, that the UAE are are harsher on, and as well as not tolerate, punish, and punish severely. There are no hidden secrets, we know the rules, to live here contently you have to stick to them, and after all, we are guests in someone else's country.
One of the biggest topics over the past few days amongst the expats over here, and especially us in the "media" sector has been the story of a couple of Brits facing jail terms on a number of what are seen as serious charges. It's made headlines over here and back home, and the way the different national press cover it is funny, but that's a different story. If you've not heard it, a thirty year old girl who works in publishing in Dubai for one of the biggest publishers over there got extremely drunk at a traditional Friday brunch. A typical Friday brunch starts at 12, finishes at around 4 and consists of an all you can eat and all you can drink menu. At this brunch, this girl became friendly and acquainted with a male British tourist. They went for an afternoon walk down the beach and one thing led to another and subsequently began consummating their newly formed relationship. Unfortunately for them, they were caught in the act by the local police, who then advised them they were acting against the UAE laws, though very fortunately for them just asked them to stop and cautioned them.
Now maybe it's just me, but if you get caught doing something wrong and are let off, you count your lucky stars and take the advice given and just don't do it again. Well on this occasion, once the officer left the seen, the couple just carried on, only to get caught shortly afterwards by the same copper, who promptly arrested them. The girl allegedly took offence to this and threw a tirade of verbal and physical abuse towards the officer. She is alleged to have hit him with her stiletto, swore and was racist towards him.
This was last Friday, and soon afterwards she appeared in court facing three serious charges, having a sexual affair (sex outside marriage is against the law), indecency in public and insulting a police officer - there are rumours of a fourth charge of being drunk in public as well. She faces a sentence of between 3 months and 6 years. To try and lessen the sentence, the couple have allegedly got married to have the first charge dropped - a shot gun wedding if ever I've heard one and a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. She has also since been fired from her job, I wouldn't be surprised if this is partly because in their article on the issue, The Sun newspaper featured the companies big blue logo!
Their final fate has yet to be decided, if they are lucky they will just be deported, however legal experts are saying that she is likely to be sentenced to years not months.
Do I have any sympathy for her? Not at all. She has lived here 3 years and knows the rules, she broke them, and carried on breaking them after she was warned. The defence will be she was very drunk, and too me that is no defence at all, and I can't see that landing on sympathetic ears in the courts over here for obvious reasons.
As the saying goes, "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime!"
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