Dubai: A businessman was cleared of indulging in sex out of marriage after his lawyer defended before Dubai’s highest court that photos showing his client indulging in sexual acts were fabricated and Photoshopped.

Citing unsubstantiated evidence, the Dubai Cassation Court acquitted the Indian businessman on Monday morning of having oral sex and exchanging kisses with an unidentified woman, who was not his wife.

The businessman’s stepson was using his mother’s laptop in April 2015 when he allegedly saw obscene images of his stepfather [the businessman] with an unidentified woman performing oral sex on him and indulging in different sexual activities.

During Monday’s hearing, the businessman’s lawyer Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi contended before the presiding judge in courtroom 22 that the criminal case filed by his wife was made-up and brought against his client on malicious grounds.

“The photos of my client in a sexual activity that were submitted to the primary court were obtained illegally and without his consent. Besides, those images had been montaged and Photoshopped. They had been tampered with in a professional and technical way to have my client convicted. This case was lodged out of malice by the businessman’s wife and stepsons due to several pending legal disputes between them in Dubai Courts,” defended Al Shamsi.

In July 2017, the Dubai Misdemeanours Court sentenced the businessman to a month in jail followed by deportation after convicting him of having sex with the woman who was not his wife.

In November, the Dubai Appeal Court upheld the primary judgement.

The businessman appealed the appellate judgement before the Cassation Court which overturned the conviction and reverted the case back to the Appeal Court for a fresh trial.

In June, the Appeal Court acquitted the Indian businessman of any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors appealed that ruling before the highest court and asked the panel of five cassation judges to convict the businessman.

Lawyer Al Shamsi asked the Cassation Court to dismiss the prosecutors’ appeal and uphold his client’s acquittal.

The Indian businessman had pleaded innocent and dismissed the charges.

Al Shamsi defended before the Cassation Court that the technical reports were full of contradictions and unfounded evidence.

In his defence, the lawyer said the claimant testified that she obtained the photos from the laptop that was not examined by Dubai Police’s forensic laboratory although it had been reported that the photos were clicked with an iPhone.

Al Shamsi argued: “The technical expert testified that the images were extracted from an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 plus. That contradicted the claimant’s allegations that the images were downloaded from a laptop or a desktop. She gave in an inconsistent statement and all her allegations were unsubstantiated.”

According to Monday’s final and irrevocable ruling, the court also dismissed the wife’s civil lawsuit.