Dubai: A young Emirati woman admitted to having consensual sex with her cousin but produced her marriage contract in court, amid hopes that she and her lover could win leniency.

The 21-year-old woman handed her marriage contract to the Dubai Misdemeanor Court and confessed to the charge that she had an out-of-wedlock affair with her 27-year-old cousin.

"Yes I am guilty. I have come to court to present a copy of our marriage contract," she told the judge in Courtroom Nine.

The woman, who is on bail, had her face covered with her headscarf when she addressed the judge.

The Emirati cousin, K.S., turned himself in earlier on and confessed to having consensual sex out of wedlock with 21-year-old A.K.

Sources close to the case told Gulf News that the couple provided the court with their marriage contract in an attempt to seek a reduced punishment or a suspended imprisonment.

Even as the two are on trial for being in an illicit relationship, K.S. told prosecutors that reporting his own crime was the only route available to him to marry the cousin he loved in the face of opposition from her family.

K.S. said earlier attempts to marry his cousin had ended in failure after his proposals were rejected by her family, especially his aunt — the A.K.'s mother.

The judge adjourned the case until October 4.

Desperate measures

"Following several fruitless attempts to convince my aunt to allow us to get married, my only solution was to report to the police that I had consensual sex with my cousin," K.S. told prosecutors in his statement.

"[By doing so] then police would have to open up a case against us… which would embarrass my aunt and her family and pressure them to consent to our marriage. I was aware that we would face imprisonment, but I was told that if we got married, the case might be dismissed."

In an earlier hearing A.K.'s mother told the judge that her daughter could not attend the hearing as she was in hospital.

During police questioning, A.K. countered K.S.' claims and alleged that he had sex with her against her will.

She said he told her that he "would marry her against her will".