Photo: The Guardian
An Australian woman, arrested in Abu Dhabi for cybercrime, has now been deported. Jodi Magi said on Facebook that she had left the country after spending “53 hours in custody”.
Magi had been detained in July for what appeared to be a social media posting. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said on Tuesday that Magi was detained ahead of her planned deportation.
The Australian government provided consular assistance to Magi and her husband, and her plight was covered widely by local media. Magi had told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) she was arrested after sharing a photo on Facebook of what she thought was an illegally parked car.
Magi, on Wednesday, posted on her Facebook page that she had been “shackled” and “forced to sleep” on a concrete floor during her incarceration. She said she knew she would never have been released so quickly if she had not been an Australian, had not received consular and other support, and if her story had not been covered by the media. Cybercrime laws enacted in the UAE in 2012 to crack down on dissent have been condemned by human rights groups. Bishop stated to the local media that the Australian travellers there needed to adhere to the laws of the countries they visited.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs’ travel advice for the UAE warns that locals laws that appear harsh by Australian standards nevertheless apply to Australian travellers or residents. Magi told the press that she really had no clue of what she had done was wrong.
