Advertisement

DUBAI: Sex on the beach, then prison

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A British couple whose drunken escapade involving sex on the beach led to tabloid headlines -- and a clash between Western permissiveness and Islamic values -- were sentenced Thursday by a Dubai court to three months in prison.

Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer were each sentenced to the prison term, fined $272 for drinking alcohol and ordered to be deported immediately upon leaving prison.

Advertisement

The pair was found guilty of having unmarried sex after a taxi had picked them up from a champagne brunch at a five-star hotel and drove them to Jumeirah beach in the United Arab Emirates’ most culturally-tolerant emirate of Dubai.

The case, which grew out of a tryst on July 5, quickly became a morality tale set amid globalization and Dubai’s skyline of sharp-angled, glittering high-rises.

The emirate is a financial hub in the Middle East, catering to tourists and multi-billion dollar business deals. It is also an Islamic state straining to balance Western influence and wealth with religious traditions that forbid alcohol, un-married sex and homosexuality.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

P.S. Get news from the Middle East in your mailbox every day. The Los Angeles Times distributes a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East, as well as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can subscribe by logging in at the website here, clicking on the box for ‘L.A. Times updates’ and then clicking on the ‘World: Mideast’ box.

Advertisement