Jail term upheld for Dubai nun who made false rape claims

DUBAI // A nun who picked up a casual lover on a desert safari then falsely claimed he raped her had her two-month jail term upheld by the Appeals Court today.

BT, 30, from Russia, met her Iranian lover AA, 40, while visiting Dubai with a group of friends last year. She went back to his flat following the safari and had sex with him willingly, but later reported him to Dubai Police, claiming he had raped her.

However, on trial at the Misdemeanours Court, she admitted the sex was with her consent. In her first hearing the nun pledged to marry her lover, a manager, but the pair did not follow through with this promise so she was instead sentenced to two months in prison on a charge of consensual sex. She was fined Dh3,000 on a second charge of filing a false police report.

The Appeals Court upheld both these convictions, as well as a one-month prison term for the man on a charge of consensual sex.

Both will be deported following their jail terms.

salamir@thenational.ae