Cape Town - A South African man and his pregnant Ukrainian fiancée will not face charges in the United Arab Emirates following their arrest for having sex outside marriage.
Charges against Emlyn Culverwell and Iryna Nohai were dropped in Abu Dhabi, The Herald reported.
It quoted Culverwell’s mother, Linda Culverwell, as saying her son telephoned to say he and Nohai, who were released Wednesday on bail, would not be prosecuted.
“Emlyn was excited and relieved to see Iryna,” after their release," Linda Culverwell said in the newspaper.
The couple was arrested on January 29 after Nohai sought treatment for stomach cramps and a doctor informed authorities that she was pregnant.
They were arrested at the hospital for not being able to provide marriage certificates.
They were taken to Yas Police Station, and then later brought to Al Wathba Prison.
The couple had become engaged on January 27.
Enforcement of UAE morality laws regarding sex and alcohol is rare. Arrests tend to follow official reports to police.
The couple works at a waterpark in Abu Dhabi and has been living in the UAE for five years.
Culverwell and Nohai began dating in mid-2014.
Their release was secured after Yas Waterworld’s holding company Miral and Farah Enterprises paid for a lawyer and bail.
Their employer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At the time of the arrest, said Culverwell's mother earlier this week, the couple’s family and friends had been unable to contact them.
Shortly after their arrest, a Christian Church in Yas Island, UAE offered to marry the couple for a lofty price, but a judge refused to allow it, according to Herald Live.
Nohai is guilty of "Zina", the Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse, which the UAE has criminalised.
The Emirates’ desire to promote itself as a cosmopolitan and tolerant corner of the Middle East has at times run up against local laws, which are based in part on Islamic legal codes and forbid sex outside marriage.
Similar laws are on the books across much of the Islamic world.
The 2013 trial of a Norwegian woman who reported being raped in Dubai sparked international outrage after she was sentenced to 16 months behind bars on charges of unwed sex and alcohol offences. She was soon pardoned and allowed to leave the country.
The sheikhdoms of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the largest and wealthiest of the seven that make up the UAE federation, a country of more than 9 million residents where foreigners vastly outnumber the local population. -