It was a story made for British tabloids:
Two randy British ex-pats in Dubai were arrested in July after allegedly being caught in a romantic, late-night embrace on one of the city's posh beaches.
The case quickly became a sensation in both the UK and the Arab world as cultural values collided.
This week, the two defendants appeared in a Dubai court to plead their innocence.
The case has already been the undoing of Michelle Palmer, the 30-something, former UK publishing manager whose life has been turned upside down since her arrest.
She has been treated as a pariah, lost her job, been pushed to the brink of a nervous breakdown and is now facing two years in jail for an amorous evening on the beach.
Palmer has denied the most spurious reports in the case: She says the two were just hugging and kissing and weren't having sex. She says she never threw a shoe at the arresting officer, a grevious insult in Arab countries. She says she never insulted Islam during the arrest.
No matter.
The Palmer and her paramour, Vincent Acors, could find out their fate next week.
Dubai is a weird and strangely alluring city full of lavish capitalist excess living alongside squalor and Muslim tradition.
Dubai is often described at the Las Vegas of the Middle East, a place where prostitution was openly peddled in large clubs and Westerners carved out quiet lives of overseas debauchery while working well-paid jobs.
But Dubai has started cracking down. One of the most well-known prostitute clubs has been shut down and the city went on a campaign this summer arrest people for cultural and social violations.
In the shadow of the UK case, two lesbians were found guilty of indecency after kissing on a Dubai beach.
That less-well-known case could be a harbinger for Palmer and Acors, who are barred from leaving Dubai until the court issues its decision...
(PA Photo: Michelle Palmer and Vincent Acors)
Remember this everytime a politician talks about our republic being a 'Christian' nation, once we become a theocracy this is where we are headed, if not a new Inquisition.
Posted by: RandyT | September 06, 2008 at 06:14 PM