British Woman Faces Dubai Jail Over Facebook Insult

[naomi24]

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, was arrested at a Dubai airport after flying there to attend her former husband's funeral. He was Portuguese, his new wife, Tunisian.

The British woman faces prosecution over two Facebook comments she posted in the UK on pictures of her husband remarrying in 2016.

Under the UAE's cyber-crime laws, a person can be jailed or fined for making defamatory statements on social media.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47847740

Far reaching laws. Should our Foreign Office advise those contemplating travel to Dubai to check social media accounts before booking flights?

[naomi24]

aog, he wasn't just her ex-husband - he was her child's father. The child went with her.

[anotheoldgit]

naomi24

Oh yes he was such a loving father so much so that he chose to divorce her mother, married a new, and chose to leave his daughter to grow up without him, thousands of miles away.

[spathiphyllum]

If the UK authorities wanted to arrest someone who came to the Uk from Dubai for stuff they wrote online, I'm sure no one would bat an eye lid. No one would question it.

Sooooooo......... Let Dubai be Dubai, just like the UK wishes to be the UK.

[naomi24]

aog, Oh you knew him? I didn't, so I can't comment on his personal life.

[andres]

Why on earth did she need to post on Facebook in the Farsi language? Who on earth delved into backdated Facebook accounts to bring this to the attention of the authorities in Dubai?Mind you it should be a lesson to everyone that nothing is private anymore and Big Brother is watching all of us.

[Peter Pedant]

why did she post in Farsi
and who translated it?
Farsi is not related to Arabic it is in fact an indo-eupropean langauge

mean time for a tourist it looks like
goobai to Dubai ( and go to Blackers instead or somewhere )

[Prudie]

"Who on earth delved into backdated Facebook accounts to bring this to the attention of the authorities in Dubai?" His new wife it seems, she who is so offended at being called a horse.

[jim360]

// If the UK authorities wanted to arrest someone who came to the Uk from Dubai for stuff they wrote online, I'm sure no one would bat an eye lid. //

I'm not so confident of that. The laws of a country can only meaningfully be applied to offences within that country. If someone committed a murder in the US, then UK courts have no jurisdiction (although they may, of course, extradite the accused to the US if the other country requests this).

Since that principle applies to such severe crimes, I don't see why it shouldn't apply to demonstrably less serious offences. The UAE is free to police the internet in its country as it sees fit, but not elsewhere.