Woman held in Dubai with daughter after drinking wine on flight

Soldato
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The sooner Brits realise SA is a backwards ******** and stop going there the better. I avoid giving SA a penny, i boycott middle-east airlines and don't drive so i don't buy their oil/petrol
 
Soldato
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I've read the article thanks, her visa being invalid isn't the reason for her being arrested it is simply the reason for her coming to the attention of the authorities. Once the guy was apparently rude to her (I guess the attitude towards women there can be dubious) she's then filmed him (illegal) and he's asked about her alcohol consumption (also illegal)... those are the two reasons we've got for her arrest - you'll see also that she had a blood test (again related to the illegal alcohol consumption).


Yes people drink there all the time, no it isn't legal for tourists. So long as you have no grounds for the authorities to have to deal with you then no one is likely to care...

It is legal for tourists under conditions. Where it's consumed/bought mainly. It is illegal to be drunk. They don't throw the book at you for alcohol, but if they pick you up for something else they will also charge you for the alcohol.

I don't even want to defend the place, I've no intention of going back... But these stories are always the same. Constant tabloid tosh to stir up disbelief. In every single one of them it's a Brit Abroad losing their temper and complaining about how they think things should be done under a nonsense headline.
 
Caporegime
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It's one of many reasons she's in prison and theyve just lumped it on just for good measure.

Many reasons? There are two it seems, firstly the alcohol and the. secondly filming in the airport after being told that she'd committed a crime by drinking alcohol.

Like I said, I've been many times, had drinks there and managed to not get myself locked up for years. They don't go looking for things to find, but if you give them lip they're quite happy to lock you up.

She's been before she should know better

And if some other drunk western person bumps into you or starts a bit of aggro when leaving a hotel bar/club and the staff just point the police at both of you then you're potentially rather screwed.

This is a country that arrests and prosecutes rape victims, you can't just dismiss it all as though the people who end up on the wrong side of the law somehow had it coming simply because you were OK when you too knowingly broke the law over there.
 
Caporegime
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It is legal for tourists under conditions. Where it's consumed/bought mainly. It is illegal to be drunk.

No, sorry but you've got that wrong, you need a licence and you can't get one as a tourist, as an ex pat sure but not when you're on holiday. The Hotels won't stop you from breaking the law and seemingly neither will the state owned airline in the case of this woman - she had one glass on the flight, she wasn't drunk, she'd simply consumed alcohol.

I don't even want to defend the place, I've no intention of going back... But these stories are always the same. Constant tabloid tosh to stir up disbelief. In every single one of them it's a Brit Abroad losing their temper and complaining about how they think things should be done under a nonsense headline.

You don't know that. What about this case then?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-arab-emirates-nightmare-ordeal-a7426421.html

Was the rape victim a "Brit Abroad" losing their temper?
 
Associate
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i Know it will be a different country and a good few years off, but i wonder how many of this type of headline we read when Qatar has the world cup in 2022
 
Soldato
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No, sorry but you've got that wrong, you need a licence and you can't get one as a tourist, as an ex pat sure but not when you're on holiday. The Hotels won't stop you from breaking the law and seemingly neither will the state owned airline in the case of this woman - she had one glass on the flight, she wasn't drunk, she'd simply consumed alcohol.



You don't know that. What about this case then?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-arab-emirates-nightmare-ordeal-a7426421.html

Was the rape victim a "Brit Abroad" losing their temper?

Think the license only permits you to buy it in supermarkets, not a requirement for in the hotels.

You're now devolving the argument into questioning all their laws. We can do that for every other country in the world if you want it to be fair?
 
Caporegime
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Think the license only permits you to buy it in supermarkets, not a requirement for in the hotels.

You're now devolving the argument into questioning all their laws. We can do that for every other country in the world if you want it to be fair?

I'm devolving it into? The thread topic itself is about a woman being prosecuted for drinking a glass of wine on a flight after seemingly arguing about a visa with some airport official.

And you're wrong about the licence, it is a requirement for the person purchasing/consuming the alcohol, the hotels (like the state airline) will seemingly be happy to allow you to break the law.

https://www.guide2dubai.com/living/laws-and-regulations/alcohol-licence-in-dubai

http://whatson.ae/dubai/2015/12/need-know-getting-alcohol-license-dubai/

Then if you look at the requirements for a licence, they include having to be a resident so not really something a tourist can get anyway - ergo you were unwittingly breaking the law there and if the police had had to deal with you for any reason then you could have potentially been locked up too.
 
Soldato
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I'll quite happily admit that, they run an entire economy off it so I'm quite aware they pick and choose when to prosecute, much like police in any other country deciding when to prosecute.

I mean, if I had parked my car illegally, and was then arguing with the police officer about it and he said 'have you had a beer tonight' before arresting me for kicking off, would the paper print that I had been arrested for having one beer? Because that's essentially what's happened here
 
Soldato
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I don't know how they can say that its illegal to drink alcohol even when its given out on the airplane.

I didn't think you legally entered a country until you come through immigration?

Either way its about time UK started to put some pressure on these middle eastern governments.
 
Caporegime
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I mean, if I had parked my car illegally, and was then arguing with the police officer about it and he said 'have you had a beer tonight' before arresting me for kicking off, would the paper print that I had been arrested for having one beer? Because that's essentially what's happened here

She wasn't arrested for kicking off though.
 
Soldato
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She wasn't arrested for kicking off though.

As far as I'm aware she hasn't been found guilty either, so why don't we all save the rage for the court case.

These RSS feeds are getting ridiculous. It's one person's side of the story, with I'm guessing a lot of information left out.

I'll patiently await a statement from the Emirates confirming everything though if anyone can find it.
 
Soldato
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Tricky one this, on the one hand if the story of the detention and the kid are true then needless to day that's barbaric.

On the other hand, i must admit if i went anywhere near those countries you can be damn sure i'd have my paperwork straight and i sure as hell wouldnt be drinking.

I mean its not like stories of the barbaric laws in these kinds of countries arent well enough publicised you'd not know messing them around wont end well, like that kid that stole a north korean flag- what did you think would happen?
 
Soldato
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I was on an emirates flight from Manchester to Dubai, there was another couple boarding the flight who had already had a skin full in Manchester, and were arguing all the way to Dubai on the plane, they continued to drink on the flight, and were still arguing in Dubai airport, they went through security with no issues in dubai, even clearly bladdered. There's definitely more to this story!
 
Caporegime
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Well presumably they didn't have an invalid visa and an official who had gotten upset at being argued with by a woman.

Fact still remains that the couple you saw could have been charged for that if the authorities had some other reason to have to deal with them.
 
Man of Honour
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Why do people think Dubai is in Saudi Arabia?!

I transited through the UAE three times in the past couple of months - once through Abu Dhabi and twice through Dubai. Each time I was fairly drunk, and each time I consumed alcohol there in the lounge. I didn't have any issues at all.

But I wasn't filming people and arguing with them.
 
Soldato
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I don't know how they can say that its illegal to drink alcohol even when its given out on the airplane.
I didn't think you legally entered a country until you come through immigration?
Either way its about time UK started to put some pressure on these middle eastern governments.

What pressure?
They own half the country. They have shares in everything, supply us with oil as we are not pushing our own resources. Will end up owning chunks of our water electricity and what not.
Between rampant military expansion through subjugation and genocide, through disruption and displacement of people, through marriage conversion and incideous infiltration, through direct immigration there is a massive spread of this culture.
We do not have any pressure to place.
None.
Someone mentions a face veil, and within days the talk is of a criminal investigation for intentional potstirring.
This is the pressure that remains to us.

People need to stop travell8ng using these airlines, stop buying products and holidays, stop going any working for large salaries, giving away skills sets and expertise abroad where the money never gets repatriated. Then that would constitute pressure. Don’t like their laws, stop contributing to their wealth.

This women had been there seven times, by then you should know never to get shirty with local police and officials, she will learn her lesson, which is why they are doing this to her, to teach her a lesson as she doesn’t fulfil their cultural norms.
 
Associate
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I live there and have no problem getting completely off my face on evenings out or brunches, or having parties at home. You can pretty much do what you want. I have an alcohol license although it has never been asked to be seen. The general rule is keep yourself to yourself and don't cause any trouble and if you do cause trouble, be very polite and bite your tongue. If something unfortunate happens like this or you don't know how it works over there, it can go downhill very quickly!
 
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