Woman jailed after taxi row

Dubai: A woman who indulged in a scuffle over how much she should charge a man for paid sex after they met in a nightclub has been jailed for three months for prostitution.

The 28-year-old Pakistani woman, R.K., was found to be a sex worker after a driver threw her and her potential client out of his taxi when they had a heated argument in the back seat in July.

The driver was said to have called the police after the sex worker and her client scuffled over how much she should take from him.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted R.K. of prostitution although she had pleaded not guilty.

Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi, according to Wednesday’s judgment, said the accused will be deported following the completion of her punishment.

A policeman told prosecutors that they were informed about a fight in front of a hotel on Shaikh Zayed Road.

“At around midnight a police patrol was dispatched to the location where a woman was said to have had a fight with a man. Once we reached the location, the woman [R.K.] said she had met the man in a nightclub and offered to have sex with him for Dh2,000. She also claimed that the man had asked her to reduce the price to Dh1,500 and she agreed. According to questioning, the couple took a taxi and were heading to the man’s residence … they argued again over the charges in the taxi and had a heated argument before the driver pulled over. The driver forced them to leave his vehicle and contacted the police to inform them about the fight. The man and the woman confessed that they had consumed alcohol as they reeked of liquor. Upon confronting R.K., she admitted that she worked in prostitution,” the policeman testified.

The ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.