UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. COURT CONDEMNS ALLEGED ADULTERER TO DEATH BY STONING

June 11, 2006: an Islamic court in the United Arab Emirates condemned a man to death by stoning and his female lover to one year in jail and 100 lashes.
The couple, both foreigners with the woman working as a live-in maid for an Emirati family in the northern emirate of Fujairah, were caught naked in bed in April when the woman's employer called the police after suspecting that she had sneaked her lover into her bedroom.
The woman was spared the stoning by death sentence because she was single while the man admitted to being married but said that he could not bring his wife over to the UAE. Like the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the court system in the UAE, which is a federation of seven emirates including the booming city state of Dubai, applies sharia, or Islamic law based on the koran, the sayings of Prophet Mohammed and the interpretations of scholars that came after him. (Sources: AFP, 11/06/2006)