Man reports affair with cousin in bid to marry

The Dubai Court of Misdemeanour heard on Tuesday that an Emirati man had consensual sex with his cousin sister, as a ploy to marry her because her family was opposed to their marriage.

However, the girl, identified as MA, accuses her cousin KJ of forcing her into sex and claims that she didn’t want to marry him.

The police record show that the 27 year old KJ, who works in Civil Defence, walked into the Muraqqabat Police Station and confessed to having a sexual affair with MA, 21, which is a crime according to UAE law.

The pair, who have been charged with having an illicit relationship, failed to attend the hearing before the court on Tuesday.

According to K.J., he has known the girl since was a child and they have in a relationship since 2008 and continued to see each other without the girl's family's knowledge. Prosecutors said he confessed to having sex with M.A. about 10 times in various hotels in Dubai.

"We had sex for the first time in a hotel in Hor Al Anz East," he confessed.

He reportedly sent text messages to M.A. and members of her family until he received a phone call from an uncle. "He said M.A. didn't want to marry me. He then gave her the phone and she told me the same.

But I didn't believe her," he said.

MA, however, denies KJ’s version of the story and claims she was blackmailed and coerced into sex.

"He blackmailed me with pictures of me without my hijab, which he got from a relative of mine. He said if I didn't do what he wanted, he'd spread the pictures around and tell people he and I had had sex," M.A. told officers.

According to M.A., she was dragged by K.J. from her university library in December 2009.

"He dragged and forced me into the car. He then slapped me continuously, until we arrived in a hotel room in Al Muraqqabat where he forced me to have sex with him," she told prosecutors.

On August 7, 2010 K.J. reportedly went to M.A.'s house for a confrontation.

"Her mother slapped me and then kicked me out of the house. M.A. told me she didn't want to marry me but she was crying. It looked like they were forcing her to say these things to me," he said.

The case was adjourned to September 20.