A UAE-based father reported his daughter and her boyfriend to police after he found the latter hiding under her bed in a Palm Jumeirah flat.
The couple, a Jordanian college student and an Emirati young man, have since been accused of having illicit sex and are now being tried in Dubai, Gulf News reports.
During police interrogations, the duo admitted to having consensual sex on the day of the incident, which dates back to December 2017.
In her statement, the student said she and her boyfriend had been in a relationship for over a year.
“A love affair blossomed between us and he used to visit my flat. One Thursday evening, I called him up and invited him over to have dinner. We had sex after dinner and then we slept," she explained.
On the next day, the defendant's father came over to her flat. She panicked, was late to answer the door, and her demeanor made him suspicious.
Once he entered the apartment, he immediately felt someone was there and started looking around. He then entered his daughter's bedroom and searched around until he found her boyfriend hiding under the bed.
The trial continues
The defendant's boyfriend tried to flee the flat, but his girlfriend's father held him down and called the police, who later arrived at the scene.
Both the student and her boyfriend were taken to a police station and investigated.
After their case was referred to prosecution, they were charged with having consensual sex.
The couple were scheduled to enter their pleas in the case on Thursday but didn't show up before a Dubai Misdemeanours Court.
The trial in the case is set to continue in the next few weeks and the couple might be handed down jail sentences.
Sex outside of marriage is illegal in the UAE
Sexual relationships outside of marriage are strictly illegal in the country, and in some cases, just meeting in private can land couples in legal trouble.
This isn't the first time a couple faces illicit sex charges in the UAE, and in recent years, several similar cases have been reported.
These include the case of a British woman who received a jail time and deportation sentence for having consensual sex with an Emirati man.
Another similar case was recorded in 2016, when a UAE-based British woman was charged with having consensual sex with a Pakistani man. She is now appealing a one-year jail sentence.
Earlier last year, a Japanese couple was detained and interrogated after they were caught having sex on a Dubai beach.
A Dubai court later handed the duo a one-month suspended imprisonment sentence and an immediate deportation order.