Dubai arrest mum is allowed home
Dentist who drank glass of wine freed
A BRITISH dentist jailed for drinking a glass of wine on a flight to Dubai has been allowed to return home.
Dr Ellie Holman was held with four-year-old daughter Bibi in a filthy cell after being arrested on arrival in the Middle East.
The 44-year-old dental surgeon said she was locked up for three days after she rowed with an immigration officer at the start of the five-day trip to visit friends.
Last night she said: “I can’t believe it’s over. When I got a call from the government telling me they were dropping the case I was in shock.
“I was told to prepare for a long stay in Dubai and a prison sentence. The man on the phone apologised on behalf of the immigration official who put me and Bibi through this. I feel like a weight is off my chest.”
The mum-of-three from Sevenoaks, Kent, was yesterday set to catch the first flight home.
She claimed she was kept in a “baking hot and foul-smelling jail” with Bibi and offered food that “smelled like rotting garbage”.
The terrified child was forced to urinate on the cell floor before Dr Holman was finally bailed on charges including “alcohol abuse”.
She said she had one glass of wine with her meal on the Emirates flight on July 13, and that led to her arrest. After landing, she was quizzed by an immigration official, who said her visa was not valid.
Following a stand-off with the officer, he asked if she had been drinking and told her it was a crime.
She and Bibi were then taken to a police station, where she was tested for alcohol. But an airport official insisted her arrest was linked to her filming the airport exchange. Her ordeal was taken up by group Detained in Dubai, before the country’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid stepped in. Dr Holman received an apology from the Dubai government, and the offer to pay for flights home.
Detained in Dubai slammed the city’s “confusing policy on drinking”.
I was told to prepare for a long stay and a prison sentence DR HOLMAN ON HER FEARS AFTER ARREST