British Man Put on Trial in Dubai for Kissing in Public

A British pair due in court accused of kissing in public in Dubai will have to wait until next month to learn their fate after their appeal hearing was postponed.

Ayman Najafi, 24, was set to appear in a Dubai court on Sunday alongside a 25-year-old tourist, named in reports as Charlotte Adams, to appeal against a one-month prison sentence.

In a phone call to his distraught mother, Mr Najafi said: "I haven't done anything wrong, mum; hopefully, I will clear my name and then I can come back." A court has now set the appeal hearing for April 4, The Press Association news agency says.

The pair were said to be drinking, touching each other intimately and kissing at the Jumeirah Beach Residence restaurant last November.

They were arrested, and the police confiscated their passports so that they couldn’t leave until they completed their jail time. However, their lawyer, Khalaf al-Hosani, says that they were released on bail and fined £178 for consuming alcohol illegally.

It’s understood that the two friends made an appeal to the Dubai court on Sunday but have 3 weeks to wait until a verdict is given on April 4. Hosani says that they didn’t inappropriately kiss, because they are only friends and were simply greeting each other how they normally do - apparently it was only a kiss on the cheek.

However, the Dubai misdemeanors court was told by the mother who made the complaint that she was offended by their behavior while she was eating with her child, Globbaly.co.uk informs.

"We kissed each other on the cheek as a greeting, nothing more,” Ayman Najafi, told the Dubai Appeal Court yesterday. He called the case a "huge misunderstanding." Police were called to Bob's Easy Diner by an Emirati woman who said her daughters were upset because the two "were kissing on the mouth."

This is not the first instance when tourists have run into trouble in Dubai. Two other British tourists were sentenced last year to 3 months in prison last year for having sex on the beach, Hindustan Times reports.