Dubai to Deport 11 Women After Naked Photo Shoot

Those involved in a naked photo shoot on a high-rise balcony in Dubai will be deported, authorities said Tuesday after the footage went viral and prompted a crackdown in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom. Dubai authorities detained at least 11 Ukrainian women who posed naked in broad daylight along with a male Russian photographer on charges of public debauchery and producing pornography, the AP reports. Earlier this week, images and videos of the naked women splattered across social media and sent a wave of shock through the emirate, where a legal code based on Islamic law, or Shariah, has landed foreigners in jail for tamer offenses.

After an unusually speedy investigation, Dubai’s Attorney General Essam Issa al-Humaidan announced that those behind the photo shoot would be sent back to their countries, without elaborating further. Dubai police have declined to identify those detained. The swift deportation is rare for the legal system in Dubai, an absolutely ruled sheikhdom. Such cases typically go to trial or are otherwise adjudicated before deportation. "The public prosecutor ordered the deportation of the accused for their behavior contrary to public morals," al-Humaidan said, adding that the group of women had been charged with violating the country's public decency law.

(More Dubai stories.)