A personal account of facing adultery charges in the UAE for a consensual relationship, drawing parallels to the recent case of Marcus Fakana.
Whenever I remember it, my blood runs cold. The moment I sat in a UAE courthouse on trial for adultery, a six-year prison sentence hanging over me – and all for having sex with my boyfriend. Worse – far worse – I was all alone in the court as, just weeks before, my beloved boyfriend had died in a tragic accident. If it was the plot of a TV drama, you'd scarcely believe it, but this was my life at the age of 31.
When the news broke about Marcus Fakana, 18, being sentenced to a year in a Dubai prison for a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old British girl on holiday, the terrible memories of my own traumatic brush with United Arab Emirates law flooded back. At 31, Georgia Lewis found herself alone in a courtroom in the UAE facing charges of adultery, a term applied to anyone having sex with someone they're not married to. Living in Dubai she was better paid than she ever had been, her job got her into plenty of good parties, and she drove a huge SUV that she couldn't have afforded to run back home. Poor Marcus, now starting the new year in prison after handing himself in to the Dubai authorities, suffered awful consequences for what's perfectly legal at home in the UK, having been put through a legal process he must barely have understood. I know how that feels. In 2007, I was living in Dubai and working on a magazine for English-speaking residents and visitors. It was a pampered existence. I was better paid than I ever had been, my job got me into plenty of good parties, and I drove a huge SUV that I couldn't have afforded to run back home. And then I met Stuart Meyer at a bar after work. He was a Yorkshireman from Wetherby – tall, kind, funny, who did not tolerate fools or bullies. We hit it off at once. However, our budding romance was hampered by a problem. Premarital sex was effectively decriminalised in Dubai in 2020 (except for under-18s like Marcus Fakana's holiday girlfriend), but when Stuart and I were dating, it was illega
UAE LAW ADULTERY PRISON SENTENCE MARRIAGE SEXUAL RELATIONS
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