Engaging the services of unlicensed masseuse could land you in jail

Dubai: Massage seekers have been advised to visit licensed massage parlours and health spas otherwise they risk landing behind bars and getting deported.

Going to an unlicensed parlour and allowing an unlicensed masseuse to massage a client is an act punishable under the country's penal law, legal experts warned.

Lawyer Ali Mosabah Dahi said it is an act punishable by law for unmarried or unrelated couple to engage in unlicensed massage.

"The penal law incriminates such an act and a couple could face three months in jail followed by compulsory deportation [for expatriates].

"It is against the law for a masseuse, who is not related or married to a man, to massage him because the act becomes a crime of sexual nature.

‘Illegal sex'

"Incriminating such an act is appropriate because it prohibits massage parlours from turning into whorehouses or places to have illegal sex," said Dahi.

The issue surfaced recently after the Dubai Misdemeanour Court sentenced a Pakistani visitor and an Ethiopian masseuse to one month imprisonment.

The court said the couple encouraged each other to commit a sin when the man allowed the woman to take his shirt off and massage him.

Prosecutors accused them of staying together in a secluded and private place although they were not related to each other [neither married nor family].

The woman was not a licensed masseuse.

Senior Prosecutor Ahmad Al Attar told Gulf News that there is big difference between the crime of encouragement to commit a sin and the crime of having physical interaction between unrelated or unmarried couple.

Punishable act

"It is considered an act punishable by law for any unrelated or unmarried couple, who interact physically [it doesn't always have to be sexual intercourse but it may be any form of sexual interaction or activity] while gathered in a privately closed place. Doing so is against the Sharia law and penal law.

"It is very rare to charge a man, who goes to an unlicensed massage parlour, and a female masseuse, who massage him, with encouragement to commit a sin. Annually, we come across a case or two of such kind. Mainly when we investigate similar cases, we charge the couple with committing a crime of sexual nature such as having out-of-wedlock sexual activity.

"For instance if any of the couple asks the other partner to massage or touch him/her private parts in a sexually-inciting manner, then the couple would be charged with having an out-of-wedlock and consensual sexual activity," he said.

However Al Attar clarified that massage parlours in Dubai are licensed and authorised to hire masseuses to massage clients from both sexes after obtaining the required permissions and licenses from the concerned authorities.

No crime

"As long as the massage parlour and masseuse comply with the penal laws and don't breach the rules and regulations, upon which the trade license was obtained, then there is no crime," explained Al Attar.

Meanwhile, lawyer Dahi said: "Recent police raids exposed a number of parlours that were being used for illegal sexual purposes in contradiction and in violation of what the parlours was mainly licensed to do.

"The raids exposed that some parlours and health spas advertised at their entrances that they offer professional massage and abused that advertisement as an umbrella to offer illegal sexual services."

Welcome sign

Advocate Dr Ali Esmail Al Jarman, said prosecutors have the power to determine the charges based on the defendants' statements and available evidence.

"When a masseuse distributes the parlour's business card in public then that's a welcome sign for clients to be massaged.

"I believe that such an act should not be determined as a crime of encouragement to commit a sin or a crime of sexual nature, but that should be deemed as an administrative violation or a crime of carrying out an unlawful practice," he said.

Al Jarman said according to Article 312 of the Federal Penal Law, a suspect who encourages someone to commit a crime could face a fine or an imprisonment between one month and three years.

Meanwhile the same law's Article 356 stipulates that an unmarried or unrelated couple, who get involve in any form of sexual or physical interaction, could face between one and three years imprisonment.