Mum faces jail in Dubai for savage Facebook post about ex-husband's new wife
A British mum has been arrested and faces two years in a Dubai jail for calling her ex-husband’s new wife a “horse” on Facebook two years ago, campaigners say.
Laleh Shahravesh, 55, has been arrested in Dubai with her teenage daughter over the Facebook posts.
She faces two years in jail and a $91,000 fine over posts written after she discovered her former partner Pedro had remarried, the Detained In Dubai group said.
In one post, she wrote: “I hope you go under the ground you idiot. Damn you. You left me for this horse.”
Ms Shahravesh, from Richmond, in southwest London, was arrested with her daughter Paris, 14, at Dubai Airport when the pair visited on March 10 for Pedro’s funeral, one week after his death from a heart attack, aged 51.
They were held for 12 hours before Ms Shahravesh’s passport was seized, human rights organisation Detained In Dubai said.
She had been married to Pedro for 18 years and they lived together in Dubai, where he worked for HSBC, for eight months before she returned to Britain with their daughter.
A few months later, in 2016, she unexpectedly received divorce papers and saw from photos on Facebook that Pedro, who is Portuguese, had remarried.
In another comment, which she wrote in Britain, she said: “You married a horse you idiot.”
Detained In Dubai said her arrest, under strict cybercrime laws which also include a ban on sharing charity pages online, was “simply unreasonable”.
The posts, written in Farsi, were reported by Pedro’s new wife, Samah Al Hammadi, 42, from Tunisia, the group said.
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Ms Shahravesh said: “I had no idea he was getting married again, and so soon after our own marriage broke down.
“I reacted badly. I lashed out and wrote two unpleasant comments about his new wife on his Facebook page.”
British mum ‘deserved’ to be punished: New wife
But Ms Hammadi, 42, the woman who reported her late husband’s ex-wife to police in Dubai, said Ms Shahravesh deserved to be punished.
Ms Hammadi told the Evening Standard she made the complaint after “suffering in silence” for more than a year, and claimed Ms Shahravesh called her a “b****” in emails to Mr Santos and to his boss at HSBC.
She added: “If she is innocent she will go free, but if not she has to pay.”
Ms Hammadi defended Dubai’s cybercrime laws, saying: “It is a crime in Dubai. It is right. I don’t feel sorry. She made him [Mr Santos] suffer in the last year of his life. Let the law take part.”
However, Ms Hammadi has since told The National she was considering backing down for the sake of her late husband’s daughter.
“I am pursuing this case because I believe it is my duty to honour my late husband and protect him from further defamation,” she told the news outlet.
“One of the last messages he tearfully gave me before his death was that he deeply loved his daughter. I am willing to withdraw this case to honour my husband’s love for his daughter.”
Paris has been allowed to return to Britain but Ms Shahravesh must remain in the country and faces further court proceedings on Thursday.
Ms Shahravesh said: “I am terrified. I can’t sleep or eat… And my daughter cries herself to sleep every night.”
“My life is in ruins, and that is even before the huge fines and jail I am facing here,” she said.
A Foreign Office spokesman said its staff are supporting a British woman and her family following her detention in the United Arab Emirates.
The spokesman added: “We are in contact with the UAE authorities regarding her case.”
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