Dubai: A couple has been sentenced to a year in jail for sex outside of marriage, after the man’s wife reported them to police.

The man’s wife was in the couple’s marital home in Discovery Gardens on November 29 at the time of the incident. She was in the living room while the pair were in the bedroom.

The hotel manager and his partner pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court. They said they got married in Ukraine on August 1, 2012 and provided the judge with a copy of their marriage contract.

“It is true that we were having consensual sex… but I was not on good terms with my wife and we had marital problems that were leading us to divorce,” the manager said in court.

Records said the manager provided the judge with Sharia court papers certifying that he divorced his wife in December 2012.

“My husband is a Hindu and he is not allowed to have two wives at the same time. We had agreed to divorce but he was supposed to provide me with housing, which he didn’t. I was staying in the house temporarily until we settled things. When he brought his lover with him, I asked him to kick her out. He didn’t,” the man’s ex-wife said.

The Ukrainian woman is believed to be seven months’ pregnant.

Records said the 35-year-old Indian manager started having sex outside of marriage with his 22-year-old Ukrainian girlfriend in March 2012 while still married to his 32-year-old countrywoman.

The manager said that he was not satisfied with his marriage and he asked for a divorce when his Ukrainian girlfriend got pregnant.

The couple claimed that they had consensual sex nearly 60 times since they first met. The defendants asked the court to acquit them because they were married and didn’t have sex outside of marriage.

According to Tuesday’s judgement, the court decided the pair had sex outside marriage as they confessed their relationship blossomed in April 2012, while the manager got divorced in December.

The pair will be deported following the completion of their jail terms, said presiding judge Mohammad Shawqi.

The judgement remains subject to appeal within 15 days.