Kiwi student’s Dubai jail experience a warning for all
New Zealand student Mariam Shafeek said on her arrival in Auckland International Airport yesterday that a horrifying ten day ordeal in a Dubai prison felt like 10 years after a holiday with family in Egypt ended in her arrest in Dubai on the way home.
The 22-year-old Christchurch student was arrested at Dubai Airport on January 25 after being found with 0.2g of marijuana in her purse and she spent 10 days in Dubai’s al-Markapet women’s jail as police and lawyers discussed her case and her Auckland based mother fought for her release.
Shafeek said, “It felt like so long. Time dragged so much. I was absolutely shocked and horrified that I was in prison.”
She was released from jail on Saturday night though and the drug charge against her was dropped, although it was not clear why, with Shafeek adding, “I didn’t want to question it, I just wanted to get out”.
If she had been found guilty on the charge, Shafeek could have faced four years in prison under United Arab Emirates law, which in other countries could have been much more severe with even the possibility of death in some countries on drugs possession charges.
Shafeek has denied any knowledge of the marijuana and was not sure how it got in her bag, despite suggestions it was a “jealous” friend of her cousin, adding, “It was the first time I had seen it and when I was staying in Egypt I moved around a lot, so it could have been anyone really”.
Shafeek tested negative to marijuana in police tests and she said she did not smoke the drug after an airport worker found the marijuana during a routine bag inspection, with Shafeek saying that it was inside a jewellery box, adding that the inspector asked me what it was and I said, “I don’t know”. She asked me if it was mine and I just said, “I don’t know.”
Shafeek said her mother, Seham Ayad, helped her “heaps” and was instrumental in her release, adding, “Without her I would probably still be in there, because from inside, I couldn’t do much and they only gave me the phone for 10 minutes a day.”
Shafeek will return to Christchurch tomorrow so she can resume the final year of her medical imaging degree at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology and added that she said she would not be returning to Dubai “anytime soon”.
The incident appears to be a warning to Kiwi and Aussie travellers to check their bags and belongings very carefully before passing through custom checks to ensure that this type of incident does not happen to them.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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