Dubai holiday warning as British mum arrested for calling love rival ‘horse’ on Facebook (Image: DETAINED IN DUBAI)
Laleh Sharavesh, 55, has been separated from her 14-year-old daughter Paris and had her passport stripped of her after her ex-husband’s wife reported her to the police for the posts from 2016. Distraught Ms Sharavesh said: “I have lost everything because of this.” Legal experts today issued warnings to tourists heading for the United Arab Emirates, with new cyber crime laws “rendering almost every visitor to the country a criminal”.
Ms Sharavesh was heartbroken when she opened her Facebook page to see her husband Pedro marrying a Tunisian woman 10 years her junior, just months after she was served divorce papers out of the blue after returning to the UK from Dubai.
Her husband of 18 years, originally from Portugal, was due to reunite with her in the UK after completing work commitments with HSBC.
But Ms Sharavesh was blindsided when it emerged Pedro was leaving her and their 14-year-old daughter in 2016 for a woman named Samah Al Hammadi.
She lashed out on Facebook writing in two posts: “I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse.
“You married a horse you idiot.”
Laleh Sharavesh and her daughter Paris (Image: DETAINED IN DUBAI)
I am terrified. I can’t sleep or eat
Laleh Sharavesh
Ms Sharavesh picked herself up to move on with her life in Richmond, London, where she works at a homeless shelter.
But after Pedro died from a heart attack last month, Ms Sharavesh and her daughter Paris flew to Dubai to attend his funeral, where she was arrested for the two posts.
Police demanded she find someone to care for Paris, but unable to do so officers stripped Ms Sharavesh of her passport leaving her stranded in the United Arab Emirates since their arrival on March 10.
She faces a £50,000 fine and up to two years in prison after Pedro’s new wife reported her to the police. Her daughter Paris had to fly home to the UK alone on their scheduled return journey five days later.
Ms Sharavesh said: “We were married for 18 years after all. And Paris wanted to say goodbye to her father.
Laleh Sharavesh's accuser Samah Al Hammadi (Image: DETAINED IN DUBAI)
“We flew to Dubai where we were intending to stay for just five days, and were arrested immediately upon entry because Pedro’s new wife Samah had reported my old Facebook post to the police.
“The police kept telling me to call someone to take my daughter while I went to Jebel Ali,” says Laleh. “But I don’t know anyone here well enough for that. Eventually they let us go, but kept my passport.
“I am not allowed to leave Dubai. I have been to court once, where I was not allowed to defend myself. And a police station where we were kept waiting for 12 hours without any progress. I am due in court again on Thursday the 11th of April and face a fine I can never pay plus jail.
“I am terrified. I can’t sleep or eat. I
