Pakistani couple beats car sex charge in Dubai

[May 04, 2010]  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A Dubai appeals court has thrown out a public indecency conviction and a month's prison sentence for a Pakistani couple accused of having sex in their car after the pair claimed they were together in a private place, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Majid Al Kabban, the lawyer representing the husband and wife, said the ruling by the lower court was overturned last week. The couple were initially sentenced to a month in prison and deportation.

The pair successfully argued their car should be treated like a private house. Their lawyers argued that because of the car's tinted windows, a policeman who had raised the charge could not have seen what the couple were doing inside.

It was not clear on Tuesday if the Pakistani couple was still in Dubai.

The ruling is the latest in a string of cases involving sex in Dubai, a cosmopolitan city with the most lenient social codes in the Gulf but a tendency to crack down on frisky foreigners. In March, a British couple was found guilty of kissing in public.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.