Part of a short item in Gulf News caught my eye this morning, and it raises a question I can't answer.
Russian 'A.L.' was sentenced for molesting a stewardess on a flight to Dubai. Three months (suspended) and deportation.
That's fair enough. But...
He was also fined Dh2,000 for consuming alcohol. On the plane. Presumably mostly, if not all the time, in international airspace. Where it isn't illegal.
So how does our Public Prosecution have the authority to charge and sentence a foreign national for doing something outside these borders where it is not illegal?
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In legal terms, I suppose, if one is "drunk and disorderly" in the UAE, it is against the law.
If he's Muslim, the punishment is harsher, I believe.
As I see it, he was "drunk" on UAE soil, therefore he has broken the law.
The charge wasn't being drunk, he only had three drinks apparently. The charge was 'consuming alcohol' which many people are charged with here, drunk or not. I wonder how they can charge a foreign national with 'consuming alcohol' outside the UAE, where it is not illegal.
I think technically that if he was on an Emirates plane, then he is deemed to be on UAE soil and thus under UAE jurisdiction.
I might be wrong, but I've always been under the impression that as soon as I was on, say, a BA plane in India then I was subject to UK law.
A person can also be imprisioned for having marijuana in their bloodstream (i.e., in essence, for smoking pot in another country) even if they are not in posession of anything in the UAE. It's f***ing bull***t.
It seems that the UAE likes arresting anybody that has done *anything* anywhere in the world... as long as it's illegal in the UAE. As wakemanjohn was talking about the drugs-issue, it made me wonder: in the UAE, "adultry" is punished severely. So, if a single woman moves to Dubai, but she is no longer a virgin before she enters the country, should they arrest her for adultry anyway? Who knows...
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