A 55-year-old female expat is facing up to two years in jail in Dubai for calling the wife of her deceased ex-husband “a horse” in a Facebook post way back in 2016.
Authorities arrested Laleh Shahravesh, British woman, when they returned to the UAE on March 10 to attend her ex-husband Pedro’s funeral.
Laleh was arrested by police for allegedly violating Dubai’s cybercrime law.
The law can be implemented retroactively, which means old social media post can be used against a person visiting Dubai.
Laleh is currently held by Dubai Police and is unable to leave the country as the court hears her case, while her daughter Paris flew back to London alone.
The two offending comments were written in Farsi and translated as “I hope you go under the ground, you [glaring words]. You left me for this horse,” and “you married a horse [glaring words].”
The suspect said she wrote the Facebook post because she felt “angry and betrayed” after seeing pictures of their wedding mere months after he had suddenly served her with divorce papers.
“After 18 years of marriage, such a small amount of time apart, he was getting married so quickly. He didn’t even have enough respect for me to tell me in advance,” Laleh said in a statement.
