Dubai: British man jailed for three years for public gay sex
Two men, from Britain and the Seychelles, have been sentenced for three years in jail for having drunken gay sex in public in Dubai.
According to a report in The National, an Emirates-based English paper yesterday (11 April).
A 28-year-old British male teacher, identified only by his initials PA, admitted to having consensual gay sex with MB, a 40-year-old man from the Seychelles, next to a petrol station in February 2011.
The pair were said to have been drunk after a birthday celebration for one of them after which they stopped by a tree next to the petrol station for sex.
A man parked behind the petrol station witnessed the two men and reported them to police.
He later reported to the Dubai Misdemeanours Court: ‘I was exhausted and decided to park my car and nap for a while then I saw the two men.’
The two men apparently tried to escape when the police officers arrived, but were apprehended.
During a court hearing in March this year (2012) they both admitted to having consensual sex and consuming alcohol. Each was sentenced to three years in jail and both will be deported after serving their prison terms.
Article 358 of the Punitive Law Number 52 of 2006 states that people who preform ‘obscene public acts and violations of public decency’ are to receive no less than a six-month jail term.
The purchase and consumption of alchohol in the Dubai Emirate is illegal without a license which is only issued to resident non-Muslims.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Emirate of Dubai, Article 177 of the Penal Code imposes imprisonment of up to 10 years for consensual gay sex.
Recently (10 April), the Dubai police arrested two Bangladeshi men for having consensual sex in a public toilet at a bus station. Both were jailed for six months each and will be deported following their prison terms.
In a much publicised case a British straight couple in 2008 were sentenced for three months in a Dubai prison and a fine for similar offences and were released and deported after an international outcry.
A spokesperson for the United Arab Emirates LGBT group commenting on the case of the British and Seychelles men said: ‘The Emirates rules and laws on public displays of affection and indecency are clear and therefore must be respected.
‘We would have hoped the court would have fined and deported the men, or at the very most hand a sentence of anything between a three to six months sentence followed by deportation.
‘The length of jail term handed down in this sentence, however, compared with straight equivalent and even the previous gay sex case seems to us uneven, excessive and unjustly harsh.’
A spokesman for the British Foreign Office remarked: ‘We are aware of the arrest of the British national in Dubai and are providing consular assistance to the British national and their family.’
