DUBAI // Two police officers, two Emirati women and another woman lost their appeals on Monday against one-month jail terms for drinking and having sex outside wedlock at a yacht party in Dubai Marina.
Six people in total had been charged after a raid on the yacht in October last year where 28 people were arrested — 15 men and 13 women. Aside from the six charged, the others were each fined Dh2,000 for a charge of beautifying the sin by the Court of Misdemeanours on April 5.
Dubai Police’s Criminal Investigations Department had received information about a number of policemen who organised parties for the express purpose of having paid sex and consuming alcohol with men and women of different nationalities, records stated.
The defendants were initially sentenced to one year in prison each but on October 20 they had their terms reduced to one month at Dubai Court of Appeal, which also upheld a Dh2,000 fine against each of the six.
However, a further appeal at Dubai Court of Cassation was rejected and they will have to serve their sentences.
One Emirati man, M A, 43, was dressed as a woman and was wearing make-up at the time of arrest.
A police investigation found that the group had rented a yacht in Dubai Marina on October 10 last year to hold a party.
It was raided at 6am while it was docking in the marina and arrested 13 women, aged between 20 to 36. Eight of them were Emirati, one Omani, one Yemeni, one Saudi and two Moroccans.
The 15 men who were arrested were aged between 21 and 43 and 11 of them were Emiratis, two were Iranians and two from the Comoros Islands.
Everyone on-board the yacht was drunk and taken into custody for criminal laboratory testing.
Police officers seized 101 bottles of alcohol, including vodka, beer and whisky.
Emirati Corporal B L, 31, testified in prosecution investigations that she arrested and searched the women.
salamir@thenational.ae
