Horror as British man faces two years in Dubai jail over negative dog grooming review

Craig Ballentine, 33, is presently stuck successful Dubai aft helium was accused of slandering a canine grooming centre helium worked for past twelvemonth - with his lawyers saying helium could look 2 years successful jail

A Brit is facing 2 years successful a Dubai jailhouse aft posting a antagonistic reappraisal astir a canine grooming concern helium utilized to beryllium employed at.

Craig Ballentine, 33, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, worked astatine a canine salon successful Dubai for astir six months past year. He was past diagnosed with fibromyalgia - a chronic information that causes wide symptom and tenderness successful the assemblage - and had to instrumentality clip disconnected work.

Despite handing implicit a doctor's enactment to his employer, helium was labelled arsenic "absconded" by his boss, which violates Dubai employment law, according to his ineligible team. This led to him being fixed the footwear and slapped with a question prohibition connected his passport, which took 2 months and thousands of quid to lift, enabling him to alert backmost location to Northern Ireland.

After leaving a Google reappraisal astir the grooming centre and his erstwhile boss, Craig visited Abu Dhabi for a vacation and was taken to Dubai to look slander charges nether the UAE's strict cybercrime laws. He is present stuck successful the country, incapable to instrumentality to his occupation arsenic an autism enactment idiosyncratic and facing a imaginable two-year situation sentence.

Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained successful Dubai, who is battling to get Craig backmost home, said: "We've seen radical arrested for complaining to lawsuit work oregon for leaving online reviews connected hotels and rental car agencies". Local lawyers person reportedly told Craig determination is astir nary accidental of the lawsuit against him being dropped, reports the Daily Star.

"When idiosyncratic is offended, adjacent if they are astatine fault, they tin unfastened a transgression prosecution retired of spite. Craig deleted the post, apologised but inactive faces jail. It's outrageous. We've seen radical arrested for complaining to lawsuit work oregon for leaving online reviews connected hotels and rental car agencies. The UAE's precocious enacted Cybercrime laws are a nightmare for foreigners."

Explaining the laws, Radha said that radical tin find themselves successful blistery h2o implicit idiosyncratic else's vindictiveness. She said: "It is capable for a complainant to simply archer constabulary that idiosyncratic posted thing violative oregon rude. The constabulary don't adjacent request to spot the existent post. The complainants person each the powerfulness and often request wealth from the accused to adjacent retired the case.

"It's a means for vindictive radical to extort. Once a transgression lawsuit is won, they tin besides unfastened civilian cases for monolithic damages - the strategy incentivises it. Flatmates, co-workers and adjacent spouses person abused this instrumentality and we find that it’s often foreigners who are taking advantage. In this case, some parties are Western and astir radical wouldn’t imagination of opening a akin lawsuit successful their ain countries but look rather blessed to unfastened them successful the UAE."

Craig told Ms Stirling successful a telephone telephone that his parent was "so upset and stressed she thought I was dead." Radha and Detained successful Dubai person reached retired to Craig's section representative, Michelle O'Neil to implore her to marque diplomatic representations to the UAE’s Ambassador and FCDO. The Mirror has contacted Michelle O'Neil, who holds the positions of Northern Ireland's First Minister and Vice President of Sinn Fein, for comment.