Italian women have two-month jail terms for kissing in public overturned in Dubai after court hears one of them was licking some mayonnaise off her friend's face

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Two Italian women have been cleared of kissing in public in Dubai after one told the court she was just wiping mayonnaise off her friend's cheek - with her tongue.

The Italian women had been sentenced to two months in jail and a deportation order in May after a man called the local police to report them kissing in a food court. 

But their lawyer had the sentence quashed in the appeal court after one of the women claimed that she was simply licking off the mayonnaise that her friend had accidentally smeared around her mouth.

Two Italian women have been cleared of kissing in public in Dubai after one told the court she was just wiping mayonnaise off her friend's cheek - with her tongue. File picture

Their lawyer had the sentence quashed in the Appeal Court in Dubai (pictured) after one of the women claimed that she was simply licking off the mayonnaise that her friend had accidentally smeared around her mouth

She said: 'We were not kissing bizarrely as the man claimed,' reports Gulf News.

She added: 'My friend was eating and some mayonnaise spread out around her mouth. I used my tongue to remove the mayonnaise off her cheek ... it happened spontaneously.

'We did not have any criminal intention,' she said, and her friend corroborated her story.

Their lawyer, Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi, argued that the police had not properly followed procedure after the women were arrested in September, which is why the sentences could not stand.

He argued that the women were interviewed without a translator, which is not allowed under criminal guidelines for police.

The lawyer also argued that the security guards who detained them should not have done so and only the police had the right to arrest them.

He also told the Appeals Court that the witness's description of the lewd act was untrue, as he had claimed the women they had kissed for some time, when actually the act lasted only a few seconds. The statement was also full of inconsistencies, he said.

And he argued that there was no intention to commit a lewd act as one of the women had been removing mayonnaise, not kissing her friend.

Judge Aysar Al Ebyari overturned the ruling of the first court and acquitted the two women, although a higher court, the Cassation Court, has the right to appeal it within 30 days.