There is fresh agony for the mum of a young British woman jailed for life in Dubai after her hopes of raising money via a GoFundMe to fight her sentence were dashed
A mum raising money for her law student daughter, who she says is jailed for life in Dubai, has seen the family’s fundraiser hauled offline.
Mia O’Brien, 23, from Huyton, Liverpool, is being held in Dubai’s central prison after she “got mixed up” with “so-called friends”, her mum says. Details about her arrest and the charges against her are yet to emerge.
Mum Danielle McKenna, 46, launched a GoFundMe in a bid to raise money for legal fees. In the fundraiser, she said she wanted to help battle for her freedom – but the page has now been removed. A GoFundMe spokesperson says it breached community rules.
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“Mia has been given a life sentence over in Dubai and she is now in central prison. As you can all probably imagine, as her mother I am absolutely devastated. I haven’t seen my daughter since last October,” Danielle said. “Mia is only 23 years old and has never done a bad thing in her life.
“This is a young girl, who went to university to do law, and unfortunately got mixed up in the wrong so-called friends and made a very stupid mistake and is now paying the price. So all I ask is if you can donate anything you can spare, even if it’s a £1, it could help up massively and I would be forever grateful. Thank you so much.”
A GoFundMe spokesperson told The Sun: “It was removed because it violates Term 9 of the Prohibited Conduct section in our Terms of Service. Term 9 prohibits raising funds on GoFundMe for the legal defence of certain alleged crimes.”
Danielle had also thanked people for donating on the now-removed fundraiser. She said: “I just want to thank everyone for their donations so far, this money will be used to send to my daughter Mia, and also for any legal fees that may arise, and maybe even to go towards getting family over to Dubai to see her, as none of us have seen Mia since last October, so thank you all so much.”
The mum told MailOnline: “She’s going through it at the minute. She’s just been transferred to another prison after getting a life sentence. It’s been a massive shock.”
This comes after a young Brit who spent months in a Dubai prison after having consensual sex with another teenager was returned to the UK.
Marcus Fakana, 19, from Tottenham in North London, was jailed in the United Arab Emirates last year over a relationship he had with a fellow Brit, who was also from London, while on holiday in the Middle East.
The woman, who is now 18, had failed to tell Marcus she and him were not the same age when they established their relationship last year.
Sex between under-18s is illegal in the UAE, and Marcus was kept behind bars for months after he was arrested over the relationship by local police, who had been tipped off by the girl’s mother.
Marcus received a royal pardon from Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, campaign group Detained in Dubai said.