A 21-year-old American student, who was sentenced to a year in prison in the United Arab Emirates for assaulting a female customs employee by merely touching her arm, will finally be able to return to her home country.
• Read also: “Humiliated and shocked”: A student imprisoned in Dubai touched the arm of a customs employee
“[L’étudiante est] “I’m happy to be back in the United States after five anxious months,” said Radha Stirling, president of Detained in Dubai, which represents visitors fighting legal action in the United Arab Emirates. The Independent Thursday.
American Elizabeth Polanco de los Santos, 21, will finally be able to return to her country after five months spent in Dubai and spending tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees and hotels, after a transit that lasted a few hours incorrectly in the popular city. .
The young woman’s story sparked a scandal after she received a one-year prison sentence on charges of assaulting and insulting a customs employee who had just searched her painfully, before laughing at her while she was half-naked.
But according to the student, she only had to “gently touch his arm” to reach the door and ask her friend for help in applying a large compression garment that she had to wear after surgery, according to British media.
Fortunately, her sentence was overturned, and she is expected to board a flight home soon.
“Tourists are vulnerable to retaliatory, false, and baseless allegations that can land them in notorious prisons. They are vulnerable to extortion schemes, like the ones we see from airport staff and agents,” Radha Stirling continued. Car rentals, taxi drivers, etc. The Independent.
She added that more efforts should be made to protect tourists passing through the UAE, and prevent others from being “humiliated and traumatized” by “false accusations” like the young woman.
