Dubai: A nun is currently standing trial over having consensual sex with a man she earlier accused of raping her following a desert safari trip.

Police were alerted to the incident in October when the 30-year-old European nun, B.T., who was holidaying in Dubai with a group of friends, claimed that 40-year-old Iranian, A.A., raped her in his home.

“Dubai Police, in coordination with Ras Al Khaimah Police, arrested A.A. within 48 hours in RAK. Since the beginning of the interrogations, A.A. alleged that he had consensual sex with B.K.

“During prosecution questioning, B.K. admitted that when A.A. kissed her neck, she felt embarrassed and interacted with him. She admitted that they had consensual sex and that she couldn’t refuse him because of shyness. Prosecutors dropped the rape charge against A.A. and referred him along with B.K. to the Dubai Misdemeanor Court to face consensual sex charges,” a senior prosecution source told Gulf News.

During interrogation, sources said, the nun clutched a Bible in her arms and cried.

Until November, B.K. was listed as a rape victim in the case until her confession that they had consensual sex.

Prosecutors accused B.K. and A.A. of having consensual sex.

The woman independently faces the charge of falsely reporting to police that she was raped.

Meanwhile a 38-year-old Iranian worker, M.A., was accused of aiding and abetting A.A. to run away from police.

When the pair, A.A. and B.K., appeared in court last week, they entered a guilty plea and admitted having consensual sex.

M.A. was absent.

According to the nun’s statement, B.K. claimed she and her friends met with A.A. in a pre-arranged safari trip.

Following the trip, she accompanied A.A. to his flat to take some rest after he dropped her friends home.

B.K. claimed she agreed, on A.A.’s advice, to take a shower in his washroom because of the dirt and sand from dune-bashing.

When the incident was first reported, according to records, A.A. claimed that B.K. seduced him before they had consensual sex.

Then, he claimed, she had attempted to blackmail him for more than Dh150,000 to not report to police that he raped her.

Meanwhile, B.K. alleged in her primary statement that the Iranian coerced her emotionally and physically before raping her.

However, when prosecutors cross-examined B.K., she was said to have collapsed and cried saying that she had consensual sex with A.A. “out of embarrassment and shyness as it was her first time”.

The trial continues.