Dubai cabin crew jailed over sex text messages

Two cabin crew members from Emirates Airlines have been sentenced to jail in Dubai for exchanging text messages of a sexual nature. The three-month prison sentences were handed down under a verdict of coercion to commit sin.

The 42-year-old female flight attendant and her 47-year-old male supervisor, both of Indian origin, had earlier been given a prison sentence of six months which was to be followed by enforced deportation. This was reduced on appeal by the court that halved the prison time and dropped expulsion orders. The court’s revised conviction was due to lack of substantial evidence to confirm the two had been involved sexually on a deeper level than the messaging.

The text messages were produced by Etisalat, the Dubai telecommunications organisation, at a divorce court in a separate hearing relating to the woman’s acrimonious break-up with her former husband, who had accused his wife of adultery. Copies of the SMS exchanges dating back to October 2008 were provided by Etisalat to the court to support the charges of a criminal complaint filed by the jilted husband. The woman’s sister was also sentenced to a three-month jail sentence for perjury after she told authorities that it was her that was having the affair and that she had sent the messages from her sister’s phone.

Elsewhere in Dubai, a final verdict is still to be delivered on the British couple who are facing a one-month prison sentence for public kissing.