Mia O'Brien Dubai: Liverpool law student jailed for life in 'Dubai's Alcatraz' - what did she do?
A Liverpool student has been jailed for life in Dubai after making a “stupid mistake”.
Mia O’Brien, 23, is reportedly being held in Al-Awir prison - dubbed by some as “Dubai’s Alcatraz”.
The law student, from Huyton, reportedly pleaded not guilty to drug offences in court but was convicted by a judge after a day-long hearing in July and was also fined £100,000.
Mia’s mother, Dannielle McKenna, said her daughter was caught with around 50g of cocaine in a Dubai apartment, after going to visit her friend and boyfriend last October.
Ms McKenna has started several GoFundMe campaigns but each has been taken down as they are said to contravene GoFundMe’s terms of use. She has now taken to sharing her bank details on Facebook in a bid to raise funds.
One one of the now-deleted GoFundMe pages, Ms McKenna wrote: “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. 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 [with] wrong so-called friends and made a very stupid mistake and is now paying the price.”
In her latest appeal on Facebook, she said: “I am going to set up my own, as [GoFundMe] are nitpicking at everything. So if you would like to donate, please send it to Dannielle McKenna - and I would just like to thank everyone.”
Ms McKenna previously told the Daily Mail her daughter is “absolutely devastated”. She told the paper: “Mia feels she has destroyed her life as she wanted to be a lawyer or solicitor. I speak to her but she can't say too much on the phone.
“She's just made a stupid mistake after going over to see a friend and her boyfriend in Dubai. But she paid for her own flight as she had a bit of savings. No one paid for her flight so she's not one of these wannabe influencers. I don't think she was asked to bring anything back. She was caught with cocaine in an apartment.
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'It was about 50 grams and there were two other people - her friend included. They have been charged with drug dealing. She was just given a life sentence and has to serve 25 years. The trial was all in Arabic and Mia was told of the sentence later by her lawyer.
“She is absolutely devastated by what has happened. Mia is being really strong but I know she is going through a living hell.”