A 24-year-old man in Dubai has been sentenced to a year in prison and subsequent deportation after his gay relationship was discovered when his partner fell from a window.
According to Emirates’ newspaper the National, the man’s lover had fallen to the ground from a fourth floor window and suffered injuries to which he was to succumb in hospital.
The Filipino man died last September after telling a passer-by who came to his aid that he had been thrown from the window by his partner, a 24-year-old Belgian man.
But the Belgian told police his partner had thrown himself out of the window having locked himself in the kitchen after an argument.
Rather than pursue a murder charge, the case was referred to the Dubai Misdemeanour Court, which sentenced the Belgian man to a year in prison for having had a gay relationship with the deceased man.
In April, a Dubai court sentenced a Scottish man to three years in prison, followed by deportation, after he was discovered having consensual sex with a man near a petrol station one night in 2011 February. A man who had been sleeping in his car nearby awoke and witnessed the act.
Article 177 of Dubai’s Penal Code imposes imprisonment of up to 10 years for consensual gay sex.
by Stephen Gray
Source – PinkNews
