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A Texas woman detained in Dubai is facing a 2-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.
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The case against Tierra Allen, 29, claims she slandered a car rental company and screamed publicly.
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Allen has been stuck in Dubai for three months on dubious charges, her UK-based legal advocate said.
Tierra Allen’s road home from Dubai may have just gotten more difficult.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have prohibited the 29-year-old Texas resident from leaving the country since April, when an employee of a rental car company accused her of screaming during an argument. That was a violation of a local public decency law, authorities told Allen.
After widespread international media attention to her case, Dubai police have now amended that complaint. The complaint now says that Allen “slandered and defamed” staff at the rental car company, according to a press release from Radha Stirling, a UK-based human rights advocate who is helping Allen with her case.
“Tierra was arrested and has been prevented from coming home since April on the basis of raising her voice in public. That charge did not change until her case became known to the media, at which point, Dubai authorities were confronted with the absurdity of the charge,” said Stirling, who runs a legal organization called Detained in Dubai.
Stirling did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
“Instead of dropping the case and expediting Tierra’s return to the US, the authorities have concocted a new, but equally absurd, justification for her detention; namely that she slandered the rental car company owner who was refusing to return her belongings,” Stirling added in the press release.
Allen had been traveling in a rental car as a passenger with a friend when they got into a small accident in Dubai. The rental car was towed back to the rental car office with Allen’s belongings still inside, including her wallet, phone, and passport.
When Allen later asked for her items back, the rental company asked for a payment of thousands of dollars in return — a known scam, Stirling told Insider. A verbal argument followed, causing staff at the company to report Allen to authorities.
The charges against Allen could land her a two-year prison sentence, Stirling said in a recent press release. The plaintiff in the case is requesting $10,000 in damages, a number they could raise at their discretion, Stirling said.
“It is common practice in the UAE for locals and permanent residents to register criminal cases against Westerners with the intention of dropping the case in exchange for money,” Stirling said in the press release. “Tierra, however, stood her ground, and has done so for three months, despite facing imprisonment, and despite being trapped in the UAE without an income, without support, and without recourse to justice.”
Allen’s mother, Tina Baxter, told Insider that her daughter expects to finally retrieve her personal items from the rental car agency this week.
“Tierra is expected to have her personal items released today. She will also be having a meeting at the police department either today or later this week to try to reconcile with the rental car employee in hopes of getting the criminal case dropped,” Baxter told Insider.
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