Expat couple arrested in Abu Dhabi for sex outside marriage

(Sex outside of marriage is illegal in Abu Dhabi)

MARCH 9TH 2017,

An expatriate couple have been detained in Abu Dhabi for almost six weeks after being arrested for having sex outside of marriage. 

South African Emlyn Culverwell, 29, took his 27-year-old Ukrainian fiancée, Iryna Nohai, to a medical centre in the UAE city after she developed stomach cramps.

The doctor said she was pregnant and informed authorities after they could not provide marriage certificates. They were first brought to Yas Police Station, before being moved to Al Wathba Prison.

Mr Culverwell's mother Linda said the couple got engaged on January 27, two days before their arrest.

His employer, Yas Waterworld, told his family that police were still investigating and Ms Nohai was apparently undergoing "further tests" to determine how long she had been sexually active.

"For heaven’s sake, how can they supposedly determine that?" Mrs Culverwell told News24.

"It must feel as if she is being raped by the authorities.

“The only thing they did which was wrong, was to fall in love. It makes no sense.

"We are trying to get messages to the two to say we love them and that they shouldn’t be worried... what concerns me most, is that we actually haven’t got a clue how they are. All the Department of International Relations is prepared to say is that we have ‘to be patient’, but there are three lives at stake here."

A spokesperson for the department, Nelson Kgwete, told the South African news website that the government could do nothing about it as it was a matter of UAE laws. 

A British couple, Michelle Palmer, 36, and Vince Acors, 34, were jailed for three months after having sex on a beach in Dubai in 2008. They had their sentences suspended when they signed a court document agreeing to marry on their return to England.