Mia O'Brien formerly studied law at the University of Liverpool. Photo / GoFundMe
Mia O'Brien formerly studied law at the University of Liverpool. Photo / GoFundMe
A former British law student faces a 25-year sentence and a huge fine for taking “a line of cocaine” while in Dubai.
Mia O’Brien, 24, was arrested with a friend and her friend’s partner last October.
Police were said to have found 50g (1.8oz) of cocaine – with a streetvalue of £2500 – in the flat where the group was having a party.
O’Brien was found guilty of possession on July 25, following a one-day trial held in Arabic and imprisoned at Al Awir jail.
Her ex-cellmate, a British woman who was detained for leaving the scene of a car accident, told the Sun: “She said they were at a party and having fun and suddenly police turned up and put her in a car.
“There was drugs at the party and she said to me: ‘I took drugs.’ Mia knew she was in big trouble but didn’t seem to think she would be treated as a dealer.
“She seemed to take the view that while she had taken coke, she wasn’t dealing drugs. That’s how she acted in the detention centre.
“If what she’s saying is true and all she has done is a line of cocaine, 25 years is a horrifically long sentence. She said she was visiting on holiday and had only been there a few days.”
O’Brien had previously been held in the infamous Al Barsha police detention centre, which the unnamed British woman told the Sun was “vile”.
“There is no light,” she said. “One area is full of people who know they have been caught doing something and are going to be jailed for a long time.”
O’Brien is being held in Al Awir prison and faces a fine of more than $200,000. Photo / Getty Images
O’Brien’s friend, identified only as Emma, tested negative for cocaine and was released without charge, but her boyfriend received the same 25-year jail term as O’Brien.
O’Brien’s mother, Danielle McKenna, 46, of Huyton, has launched multiple fundraising campaigns to get the verdict overturned.
McKenna insists that her daughter, a former University of Liverpool student, is innocent. She claims O’Brien made a “very stupid mistake”.
Last Friday, GoFundMe took down an appeal page created by McKenna for violating the site’s guidelines.
She then took to the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo, creating the “Mia Rose Fund”.
On that page, she wrote: “Hi, as everyone knows by now, Mia has been given a life sentence in Dubai, and is now in central prison.
“I am asking for your help, so that family can get over to Dubai to visit Mia, as we haven’t seen her since last October, and it would also really help with any other fees that we may face along the way.
“Even if it’s only a £1 [sic] it could help us massively. Thank you so much.”
O’Brien has not yet paid the court’s 500,000 dirham ($227,611) fine, but is expected to appeal in the following weeks.
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