There has been a major update in the case of a British student who was jailed in Dubai after a ‘very stupid mistake’ that changed her life.
Mia O’Brien, a law student at the University of Liverpool, was holidaying in the Middle East last year when police stormed a flat party and allegedly discovered around 50g of cocaine.
That significant amount of the class A drug is said to be worth around £2,500 and O’Brien was convicted of drug supply and possession charges on 25 July, despite pleading not guilty in a trial which was held entirely in Arabic.
She was handed a 25-year sentence at Al-Awir Central Prison, a facility that has previously been described as a ‘hellhole’ as well as a hefty fine of around £100k.
In a now-deleted GoFundMe, her mother Danielle said: “I haven’t seen my daughter since last October. Mia is only 23 years old and has never done a bad thing in her life.
“This is a young girl, who went to university to do law, and unfortunately got mixed up in the wrong so-called friends and made a very stupid mistake and is now paying the price.”
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Mia O’Brien was reportedly kept in a filthy cell alongside six other women (Facebook)
She later set up another fundraiser through her own Facebook, with GoFundMe forced to take the original one down due to it breaking rules about money being raised to help with legal defences for certain crimes.
Now, in a major update on her future, the young student has officially been freed from jail, with her mother Danielle issuing the heartwarming update on her social media.
She wrote: “Thank you so much everyone, am still in shock, am buzzing, can’t wait to give her the tightest cuddle ever.
“She’s coming home, she’s coming home, my baby is coming home.”
It’s not yet clear exactly how O’Brien has been freed but we do know that she was working alongside the campaign group Detained in Dubai in order to try and appeal the conviction.
Founder of the group Radha Sterling said back in September that she was planning to appeal the sentence after the one-day trial.
Mia’s mum confirmed the happy news on Facebook (GoFundMe)
She added: “Despite pleading not guilty, Mia was found guilty in proceedings her family and legal advisers have condemned as deeply unfair.
“Dubai police have a history of rushing to secure convictions without the rigorous evidentiary standards we expect in the UK.
“We’ve seen fabricated confessions, reliance on circumstantial evidence, and a disregard for due process. I would urge the public to withhold judgement.
“Mia’s case could be the latest in a long line of miscarriages of justice.
“Mia has pleaded not guilty from the start, but the system has already failed her. Unless this appeal is taken seriously, she risks losing decades of her life.”
Mia had been sharing a cell room with six other women, sleeping on a mattress on the floor, but now it appears that she could well be home in time for Christmas.
The law student isn’t the only Brit to fall foul of the harsher drug punishments over in the Middle East, with a young dad sentenced to 40 years in Dubai earlier this year.
LADbible has contacted the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office for comment.
