Dubai, UAE - Two Emirates Airline cabin crew have been jailed for three months for exchanging lewd text messages. RS, 42, a flight attendant, and EB, 47, a cabin services supervisor, were convicted of “coercion to commit sin” after sending each other sexually themed SMS messages, according to court documents released yesterday.

The pair, both Indian, were sentenced to six months in prison and deportation by the Dubai Court of Misdemeanors in December. The court said the texts “fulfilled all the necessary angles of coercion to the commitment of sin”. The Appeals Court upheld that decision last week. But it halved their jail sentences and scrapped the deportation orders.

There was not enough evidence to prove that the pair had extramarital relations, it added. The case first went to court after the flight attendant’s husband, SG, filed a lawsuit against his wife in March 2009 claiming that she was involved in an illicit relationship with the supervisor.