Gay rights campaigners have condemned a three-year jail term handed out by the Dubai authorities to a Scots teacher who was caught having sex in public.
Paul Brandt, 28, from Findochty in Moray, had been working in the United Aram Emirates (UAE) as acting head of the Information and Communication Technology Department at Deira International School in Dubai.
Reports yesterday said that he and Mickey Beley, 40, from the Seychelles, had admitted breaking the emirate's strict decency laws in the Dubai Misdemeanors Court, with each receiving a three-year sentence.
A Foreign Office spokesman told The Herald: "We are aware of an arrest of a British national of that name in Dubai. We are providing consular assistance to the British national."
The case is reported to relate to an incident in February of last year near a petrol station, after a party.
The Dubai police were called and the two tried to escape.
Although the UAE is seen as comparatively liberal Muslin country, consensual homosexual acts are still illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice to the one million British nationals who visit the UAE every year, says: "Alcoholic drinks are served in licensed hotels and clubs, but it is a punishable offence to drink, or to be drunk, in public.
"Public displays of affection are frowned upon, and there have been several arrests for kissing in public. Homosexual relationships are illegal."
When asked about the reports from Dubai, a female member of Mr Brandt's family in Findochty said yesterday: "We can't say anything about it."
According to Pink News, the European gay news service, the three-year sentence contrasts markedly with a case earlier this week when the Dubai police arrested two Bangladeshi men for having consensual sex in a public toilet at a bus station. Both were jailed for six months.
A spokesperson for The United Arab Emirates Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender group spoke to the news service about Mr Brandt's case.
It said that while the UAE's laws were clear and should be respected, there should have been more leniency shown by the court.
"We would have hoped the court would have fined and deported the men, or at the very most hand a sentence of anything between a three to six months' sentence followed by deportation," the group said.
Mr Brandt was educated at Buckie Community High School and then went on to Aberdeen to study at Robert Gordon's and then Aberdeen universities.
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