A married couple have been cleared of indecency charges in Dubai after they insisted the car where they were caught canoodling was a private place.

A lawyer for the husband and wife, who have not been named, confirmed that an appeals court overturned a lower court ruling which had sentenced them to a month in jail and deportation.

The Pakistani couple successfully argued a policeman could not have seen them committing an indecent act inside their car - since it had tinted windows.

The ruling is the latest in a string of cases involving sex in Dubai, a cosmopolitan city with the most lenient social codes in the Gulf but a tendency to crackdown on foreigners.

In March, a British couple was found guilty of kissing in public.

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