Mother can return to UK after trial over ‘horse’ insult on Facebook

A BRITISH woman arrested in Dubai over Facebook posts calling her late exhusband’s new wife a “horse” has been convicted and fined by a court.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, was convicted of a misdemeanour and ordered to pay a 3,000 dirham (£650) penalty over the comments about Samah al-hammadi.

Ms Shahravesh, a dual British-iranian national from Richmond, southwest London, will not serve any time in prison but will not be able to leave the country until she pays the fine.

She appeared briefly yesterday in the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours, which initially adjourned the case until next week.

However, a senior court official said that judge Mohamed Mustafa Ibrahim Khalil issued his decision shortly afterwards.

On March 10, Ms Shahravesh was arrested with her daughter, Paris, 14, at Dubai airport when the pair arrived for the funeral of former partner Pedro

Dos Santos.

His new wife, Tunisian-born Ms Hammadi, 42, filed a criminal charge against Ms Shahravesh, claiming she was the victim of a hate campaign.

She first complained to police about a post written in October 2016 on Ms Shahravesh’s Facebook page, where she was described as a horse. In the post, she wrote: “I hope you go under the ground, you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse.”

In her defence, Mrs Shahravesh later said: “I reacted badly. I lashed out and wrote two unpleasant comments about his new wife on his Facebook.”

She is the first British citizen to be charged under the UAE’S strict cyber crime laws, which make it a criminal offence to post defamatory and insulting words on social media.

Even though the insulting Facebook post was written while Ms Shahravesh was living in the UK the Emirate’s new laws meant that as the “victim” was in Dubai a prosecution could be brought.