DUBAI: A Dubai court yesterday sentenced two Britons to three months in prison to be followed by their deportation for having sex on a beach in the emirate.
Michelle Palmer, 37, and Vince Acors, 34, were found guilty of having sex in a public place on July 5 after drinking heavily.
Both are still free on bail and were not in court to hear the verdict in the highly publicized case.
The defense vowed to appeal and said the relatively moderate ruling suggested that they only committed an indecent act in public and did not actually have sex. Judge Hamdi Abul Khair also fined Palmer and Acors 1,000 dirhams ($272) each for drinking alcohol.
Both Palmer, a publishing executive who was sacked from her job following the case, and Acors, who was visiting Dubai, have been barred from leaving the UAE.
A prosecution official dismissed a suggestion that the judge might have shown leniency because of the defendants’ nationality or to avoid the negative publicity that a harsher sentence could have provoked in Britain — a country that enjoys strong ties with the UAE. “No way” can there be a link between the sentence and their nationality, he said.
The couple have 15 days to appeal, and defense lawyer Hassan Matar said they would do so “as soon as possible.”
When the trial opened on Aug. 12, Palmer denied having sex with Acors, saying they were simply “kissing and hugging.”
A British Embassy spokesman declined to comment on the sentence, but said the case did not appear to have scared off Britons from coming to the UAE. “We can’t interfere in the judicial process of other countries, much as we don’t expect other countries to interfere in ours,” Simon Goldsmith said.
Asked if the case had any impact on Dubai’s popularity among Britons, he said: “Around a million visitors from the UK come to the UAE every year. We haven’t seen anything to suggest a change in those numbers.”
