British woman jailed in Dubai for having consensual sex after complaining ex-lover was harassing her

A British woman has reportedly been sentenced to one year in prison in Dubai for having consensual sex, after her ex-lover threatened to expose their affair to her friends and family.

The unnamed woman and her Pakistani ex-lover have been found guilty of having sex outside marriage, which is illegal in the UAE, after she flew out to visit him for a week in 2016 following a three year relationship on Facebook.

The man claimed that when the woman came to visit in 2016 he picked her up from Dubai International Airport and drove her to a flat to the nearby emirate of Sharjah where he claims a Pakistani religious scholar married them verbally.

She denied there had been any such wedding and said she had then tried to break it off with the man because she intended to marry someone else in London, Gulf News reported.

On hearing the news, the man reportedly became angry and threatened to report her "shame" to her family and post pictures of the pair of them on Facebook.

He reportedly called her fiance in the UK and told him they were already married.

The woman said the man had even threatened to kill her if she married someone else.

Following the threats, the woman and her father flew to Dubai to file a complaint against the man who was then arrested.

During the interrogation he denied he had sent threatening messages and instead said the woman was being pressured by her family to stay away from him.

Eventually it emerged that the pair had had sex during her stay and both were found guilty at Dubai Misdemeanours Court and sentenced to one year in prison followed by deportation.

The man and woman both pleaded not guilty and have appealed their sentences asking for leniency.

The religiously conservative UAE bans all “fornication” and even married couples have to show their marriage certificate when registering the birth of a child – the authorities may even compare the presumed date of conception with the date of the wedding.

In March, a couple was arrested in Abu Dhabi after a doctor discovered the woman was pregnant after she visited him complaining of stomach cramps.