THREE Australian businessmen will be booted out of the United Arab Emirates today after a nightmare six-week stay which led to their trial on sexual harassment and intoxication charges.
Lawyer Ross Hill rejected allegations that the three men had been drunk and disorderly during their flight into the country or that they sexually harassed a flight attendant.
They had been tested for alcohol consumption and readings were negative, he said.
But he did admit there had been an argument aboard the Etihad Airlines flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on April 27.
Businessmen Jeremy Snaith and William Sargent have been in custody near Abu Dhabi facing drug, sexual harassment and intoxication charges.
The third Australian, David Evans, was charged with sexual harassment, indecent exposure and intoxication but was released on bail.
The three first-class passengers were arrested after getting off the Etihad flight from Sydney.
Snaith yesterday was handed a six-month suspended sentence, while Evans received a one-year suspended sentence.
Mr Sargent was acquitted of all charges.
Mr Hill said they were to be deported.
"They should be out of the country within 24 hours. We are very hopeful that that is the timeframe, but things never quite work as you expect in these countries. They are certainly free to go," Mr Hill told ABC radio.
Mr Hill said a row between the men and staff broke out after a series of electrical and mechanical problems.
He said the air conditioning wasn't working properly in the first class cabin and the men were told they couldn't use their laptops.
"The service was bad, there was not enough food and there were problems with their refrigeration," he said.
"That culminated in a rather extensive argument between several passengers and the cabin staff.
Mr Hill said the claim of sexual harassment against Evans related to him touching the arm of an attendant.
He said Snaith also was fined an unspecified sum for drinking some warm champagne served by the airline.
"Everyone be warned - don't fly Etihad unless you have a permit to drink alcohol, because if you don't and you have cross words with somebody you could end up in exactly the same position," he said.
"There was no alcohol factor involved. There was a whole lot of personality factors involved. They are the sort of issues we will be addressing, backed by irrefutable evidence, when we are out of here."
Happy Pilot, I have to disagree with you that this would happen anywhere and not just in the UAE. Nowhere else in the world would charge non-residents with drinking on their carrier without having a liquor license, as the civilised parts of the world allow people to make decisions like drinking alcohol for themselves and not sell permits for it. Most likely in the Western world these guys would have been simply offloaded and made to find other arrangements to get themselves where they were going, and be banned from using the carrier again, not locked up in jail for this length of time.