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10th Aug 2018

Mum detained in Dubai for three days after drinking glass of wine on flight

Jade Hayden

A woman was detained in Dubai for three days after drinking a glass of wine on a flight.

Ellie Holman was travelling from London Gatwick to Dubai International Airport with her young daughter when she was pulled aside by an immigration official.

Holman says she was told her visa was invalid and that she would have to return to the UK.

The dentist says she began arguing with the official and was then asked if she had consumed any alcohol on the flight.

Mail Online reports that Holman said that she had drank one glass of wine. She was then told that it was an offence to drink alcohol before she started to film the official on her phone.

While it is legal for tourists to consume alcohol on flights to Dubai, it is an offence to be publicly intoxicated in many parts of the United Arab Emirates.

Following her altercation, Holman was arrested and brought to a cell in the airport alongside her four-year-old daughter.

She told the publication that her daughter “… had to go to the toilet on the cell floor. I have never heard her cry in the same way as she did in that cell.”

Holman’s passport and phone were taken away before her blood was tested for alcohol. The dentist’s husband was forced to fly to Dubai to picked up the couple’s daughter.

After three days, Holman was released on bail.

She is currently staying with friends in Dubai and now faces up to a year in the Arab State.

Topics:

dubai,news