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British woman faces Dubai jail over Facebook 'horse' insult

lifeisstillgood 8y ago
Tl;dr Her husband divorced her, then remarried without telling her. When she found out she posted two comments on facebook basically saying "you left me for that horse". Then he died, and she travelled to UAE for the funeral and was arrested. There are a lot of implications here. Firstly can the UAE please provide a list of people who will be arrested if they travel to UAE for "cyber crimes" and extending down to issues of freedom of speech ... It's a fascinating time as legal regimes start to shake out the differences in countries.
- bloak 8y ago
  In what circumstances do you think a government should warn someone that they will be arrested if they enter the country? The USA has a habit of arresting people who have somehow managed to break US law without ever visiting the place and are merely trying to fly somewhere else via the USA. Should they have been warned beforehand? A different case involved an Israeli general who flew to London. The British government warned him that he might be arrested for crimes against humanity (or whatever) and arranged for him to stay on the aircraft until it departed again, so the British government in effect helped him evade the British legal system, some might say, or is that the way things should work? Or should it depend on the category of suspected crime? And can I get travel insurance that covers this kind of mishap?
  - lifeisstillgood 8y ago
    There are not many crimes that are prosecutable in one country and don't exist in another, and can be committed without entering the first country. This was not getting drunk in a dry desert state, or potential war crimes, this is something quite new. The narrative here seems to be turning to "The FCO ought to be telling people not to travel to UAE if they have ever posted anything potentially slanderous in Facebook" That seems ... unusual advice but you can see the point. I think in the end there could be services to scan your history for potential crimes in places you are going to travel to - I can easily see it being "Ten countries your Facebook history get you ten years in jail - take the test now!!"

Tl;dr Her husband divorced her, then remarried without telling her. When she found out she posted two comments on facebook basically saying "you left me for that horse". Then he died, and she travelled to UAE for the funeral and was arrested. There are a lot of implications here. Firstly can the UAE please provide a list of people who will be arrested if they travel to UAE for "cyber crimes" and extending down to issues of freedom of speech ... It's a fascinating time as legal regimes start to shake out the differences in countries.

bloak 8y ago
In what circumstances do you think a government should warn someone that they will be arrested if they enter the country? The USA has a habit of arresting people who have somehow managed to break US law without ever visiting the place and are merely trying to fly somewhere else via the USA. Should they have been warned beforehand? A different case involved an Israeli general who flew to London. The British government warned him that he might be arrested for crimes against humanity (or whatever) and arranged for him to stay on the aircraft until it departed again, so the British government in effect helped him evade the British legal system, some might say, or is that the way things should work? Or should it depend on the category of suspected crime? And can I get travel insurance that covers this kind of mishap?
- lifeisstillgood 8y ago
  There are not many crimes that are prosecutable in one country and don't exist in another, and can be committed without entering the first country. This was not getting drunk in a dry desert state, or potential war crimes, this is something quite new. The narrative here seems to be turning to "The FCO ought to be telling people not to travel to UAE if they have ever posted anything potentially slanderous in Facebook" That seems ... unusual advice but you can see the point. I think in the end there could be services to scan your history for potential crimes in places you are going to travel to - I can easily see it being "Ten countries your Facebook history get you ten years in jail - take the test now!!"