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Babylon & Beyond

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Dubai sex-on-the-beach trial delayed

By Jeffrey FleishmanStaff Writer 
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The sex-on-the-beach trial in the United Arab Emirates has been adjourned for another month. The British couple accused of indecency and having unmarried sex along the coast in Dubai was delayed when the police officer in the case did not appear in court earlier this week.

The saga of Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer, two Brits who left a champagne brunch and allegedly ended up in a compromising position could face years in prison. Authorities say Palmer was discovered sitting on Acors with her shirt off. The couple claims they were kissing and hugging, and that medical reports will show they did not have sex.

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The National newspaper in the UAE reported that Palmer, who was fired from her job in the publishing industry over the incident, had been hospitalized in recent days for stress. The newspaper quoted Palmer as saying in a blog entry: ‘Please imagine if it were you. This is punishment enough.’

The case has become a sensation beyond the blowing sands and Oz-like skyscrapers coiling through the desert air of Dubai.

It is a present-day morality tale about globalization, Islam, British drinking habits and the curious crossroads of East and West.

The UAE is a Muslim nation with a western edge, a financial hub in the Middle East, where the call to prayer mingles with horse races, prostitution and multibillion business deals. The country’s conservatives fear that the case of the British couple and the recent one-month prison sentence handed to two kissing lesbians are indications that Western decadence is threatening a way of life.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues 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.

Babylon & Beyond
Jeffrey Fleishman

Jeffrey Fleishman is a senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was the foreign and national editor. A 2002 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, Fleishman was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing. A longtime foreign correspondent, he served as bureau chief for The Times in Cairo and Berlin, and was previously based in Rome for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also was a writer on film, art and culture. Fleishman has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and a finalist for the Center for Public Integrity’s Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. He is the author of five novels, including “Good Night, Forever” and “Last Dance.”

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