Man jailed for sex outside of marriage

DUBAI // A man charged with sex outside of marriage after his lover died of a drug overdose in his hotel room was this week sentenced to three months in prison.

SM, 22, an Emirati, woke up to find his Iraqi girlfriend Teem Ebrahim, also 22, unconscious on the floor and called hotel management for help. An ambulance arrived and rescuers tried to resuscitate Ebrahim for 40 minutes before she was declared dead. The Emirati was then arrested and charged.

He said that the pair had been in a relationship for two years and that they checked into the Beach Hotel Apartment in Jumeirah 1 on August 26 last year as his girlfriend had been in a fight with her mother and did not want to be at home.

He said that the pair would often relax at bars and dance clubs where they consumed alcohol, and that they often booked into hotels to have sex.

However, on that particular evening they did nothing but watch TV and sleep. He said that during the evening his girlfriend fell in the bathroom and injured herself.

The man said that he noticed her taking some medicine and walking around as if she was drunk, despite having consumed no alcohol.

He denied having anything to do with injuries found on his girlfriend's chest, right thigh, left ear and right foot.

A forensics report submitted to the Misdemeanours Court found that an overdose of drugs including tramadol had caused the woman's death.

salamir@thenational.ae