Another lucky expat gets a free stay at the Al Wathba government hotel:
A BRITISH businesswoman faces a year inside a squalid Arab prison for having an affair — after her fuming husband shopped her to police.
Cops in Dubai nabbed blonde mum-of-two Sally Antia, 44, as she left a five-star hotel with her lover in the early hours.
Last night she was in custody and facing deportation after admitting in court: “Yes, I did it.”
Sally, who has been married for 14 years and lived in Dubai for 12, told officers she paid for her lover’s flights from the UK to the strict Muslim emirate.
Calling Dubai a “strict Muslim emirate” is akin to describing Amsterdam as a “puritanical Christian state”.
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Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 1:28 pm. Add a comment
Marnie Pearce shuffles into the narrow, glass-fronted booth from where she greets visitors at Dubai’s Al Awir women’s jail.
Ill-fitting, dusty-pink drawstring pants and a matching shirt hang loosely on her gaunt frame – she has lost nearly a stone since being imprisoned for adultery seven weeks ago.
Despite the artful application of make-up, her once glowing complexion is pale and dry. Her face is drawn into a tight mask of despair and her long, blonde hair, which was her crowning glory, reveals prominent dark roots.
The former florist from Berkshire has become an unlikely cause celebre for human rights campaigners – Amnesty International has called for her immediate release – since her dubious conviction under draconian Sharia law.
She was sentenced to six months, cut on appeal to three, after her former husband, an Egyptian, told police she had been having an affair. And Marnie, 40, has clearly been struggling to cope with life behind bars.
Marnie and Ihab on their wedding day. Soon after they married Ihab became violent towards her, subjecting her to ‘years of abuse’
She has not seen her children, Laith, eight, and Ziad, four, since she was locked up.
…
Marnie’s nightmare began on March 27 last year when police raided the family home in a smart suburb of Dubai. They found her inside with Brian Clark, also British, who was visiting from Saudi Arabia.
Marnie was arrested and Ihab, 41, claimed she was having an affair. The family’s Indonesian maid, whose salary he pays, gave supportive evidence.
Under strict Muslim edict, it is unlawful for a woman to be alone in her home with a man, other than her husband or a family member.
The rule is rarely enforced for Westerners. And Marnie certainly hadn’t concerned herself because in the past Ihab had always held liberal views on such matters. She had not counted on him exploiting the system to avoid an expensive Western divorce and custody battle.
‘Ihab set me up,’ Marnie insists, jabbing her finger as she becomes increasingly animated. ‘I did nothing wrong. He bribed the maid to spy on me and then planted used condoms as evidence.’…SOURCE
Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 10:19 am. Add a comment
Here is someone that we can feel sorry for.
A British mother facing six months in jail in Dubai after being convicted of adultery insists she is innocent.
Marnie Pearce, 39, says she was framed by her ex-husband so he could gain custody of their children, Ziad, four, and Laith, seven. He denies the claim.
The teaching assistant has appealed against her conviction but fears she may never see her children again.
She called on the British government to intervene and extradite her children back to her family in the UK.
“I want them [the British embassy] to get my children out now. They are British citizens, my family can take them for me… this is going to be a matter of a few weeks,” she told the BBC.
“I’m handing over their guardianship to my family. They are still in my custody, I have the right to nominate someone to take my children.”
Miss Pearce, who is staying with a friend, has been banned from leaving the Arab state while she is on bail pending her appeal.
If it fails, she is likely to be deported and may lose custody rights to her sons.
She said: “They can’t take custody of my children, they are babies… if they lose their mother now they will be psychologically damaged for the rest of their lives. This is not fair.
“I love this country, it’s been my life. I’ve raised my children as Muslim and always supported and respected my husband… my life is here, I don’t want to leave, I’m being forced to leave.”
‘Stormed in’
Ms Pearce, who met her Egyptian ex-husband Ihab El-Labban 16 years ago, said their marriage broke down three years ago but she remained in the marital home.
She alleged he then began a vendetta to win custody of their sons by falsely accusing her of having an affair.
Mr El-Labban has denied the claim.
He told the Mail on Sunday: “We had problems for quite a while and we tried to live with things but I decided to take a break for the kids. She then had an affair.”
But Miss Pearce claims he stormed into their home in March with police while she was having a cup of tea with a friend and wrongly accused them of having an affair.
“My friend was having a cup of tea on the balcony outside… he stood there in horror while my husband was screaming at him,” she said.
“We went to the police station and gave statements and were allowed to leave at midnight.”
Miss Pearce, originally from Bracknell in Berkshire, said she was ordered to give a DNA sample and that her passport was taken away.
She also said her husband took possession of the family home, forcing her and her sons to move into a dirty shelter for nine months.
“We’ve been living in poverty, squalor and filth and I’ve had to beg for clothes… they kept turning the water off, so we went to the mosque to shower,” she said…SOURCE
Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 9:05 am. Add a comment
