UK Woman Could Get 6 Years for Sex on Dubai Beach

A 30-year-old Englishwoman could be sentenced to six years in jail if she is convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach last week.

Allegedly caught in the act with a British tourist by a passing police officer, Michelle Palmer, who manages a publishing firm in Dubai, could be sentenced to as little as three months, if convicted, writes the London Times. She is reportedly charged with having sex outside marriage, indecent public behavior, public drunkenness and assaulting a police officer.

But because public sex is a serious offense in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates state (residents can be arrested if they are even seen kissing). Palmer is afraid she is going to be harshly sentenced as an example to others. “Because this is known everywhere, they’re going to make an example of us and we’re going to get a higher sentence," she tells the Times, saying that she is now "panicking" over her plight despite diplomatic efforts being made on her behalf by the British Foreign Office.

Palmer's alleged sex partner is in a similar situation.