3 Indians jailed in Dubai for lewd texting

Three Indians, including two cabin crew of UAE's Emirates Airline, have been sentenced to three-month in jail in connection with a case of exchanging "lewd" text messages, a media report said on Thursday.

A 42-year-old flight attendant and a 47-year-old cabin services supervisor -- both unidentified -- of Emirates Airline were convicted of "coercion to commit sin" after sending each other sexually-themed SMS messages, the National newspaper reported court documents as saying.

The texts "fulfilled all the necessary angles of coercion to the commitment of sin," the court said.

The pair, both Indian, were earlier sentenced to six months in prison and deportation by the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours in December. But the Appeals Court halved their jail sentences and scrapped the deportation orders last week.

There was not enough evidence to prove that the pair had extramarital relations, it added.

The flight attendant's 25-year-old sister was also  convicted of perjury and sentenced to three months and deportation by the lower court, the paper said, adding her deportation order was withdrawn on appeal.

The case came to light went the flight attendant's husband filed a lawsuit against his wife in March 2009 claiming that she was involved in an illicit relationship with the supervisor. The couple had been embroiled in a divorce battle since 2007, the paper said.

During the divorce proceedings, the court ordered Dubai's telecommunications company Etisalat to produce copies of flight attendant's text messages after the husband accused his wife of an affair.

Etisalat submitted them to the court in October 2008.

Five months later, the flight attendant's husband filed a criminal complaint against her, charging her with having an affair and saying her text messages were an insult to Islam, the paper said.

The attendant's husband has since gained custody of the couple's four-year-old son after the divorce was finalised, it reported.