BEIJING, April 6 — A Dubai appeals court upheld a one-month jail sentence for a British pair kissing in public, according to media reports Tuesday.

The court ruling came on Sunday, dismissing an appeal by Charlotte Adams, 25, and Ayman Najafi, 24, who were arrested last November on charges of kissing intimately in public and consuming alcohol. An Emirati woman had complained her two-year-old daughter had seen their indiscretion.

The pair, who had been free on bail, is also to pay a fine of 1,000 dirhams (272 U.S. dollars) for illegal consumption of alcohol and will be deported after serving their jail term, according to Gulf News.

The pair claimed they are not a couple, and said they exchanged only a kiss on the cheek as a greeting, said Al Jazeera.

Khalaf al-Hosany, the pair’s lawyer, told the court in a previous hearing that they kissed on the cheek as a greeting and “never intended to break the law”.

The case is the third time in under two years that Britons have fallen foul of indecency laws in Dubai.

In 2008, a British couple narrowly escaped jail after a court found them guilty of engaging in drunken sexual activity out of wedlock and in public on a beach in the emirate.

In another case this year, a British couple who shared a hotel room managed to escape trial in Dubai for having sex out of wedlock by producing a marriage certificate. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/odd/2010-04/06/c_13239759.htm