Isabella Daggett, 21, from Leeds, was held in a hellhole Dubai prison after being arrested on drugs charges in March last year, but a family freind has now confirmed she has been released and has returned home
A British recruitment consultant held in Dubai prison on alleged drugs charges has flown home to Britain after a year-long nightmare, her family have revealed.
Isabella Daggett, 22, from Leeds, is understood have been arrested just five weeks after moving from Yorkshire to start a new job in the United Arab Emirates. But her family insist she was taken by police simply for being “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and has never used drugs.
Isabella was locked up last March but exactly what charges Ms Daggett had faced were not made public by UAE authorities and her family were long left in the dark as to precisely what she was alleged to have done.
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Fast forward a year and a family friend has now revealed that she has been released and arrived home last week. The friend told MailOnline: “She’s only just been released – it’s been a whole year of hell. Everyone thought she would be straight on a plane home as soon as the charges were dropped in January, because that should have been the end of it.
“But then came this £3,000 visa overstay fine, which absolutely stunk. It felt like one last kick in the teeth after everything she’d already been through. There’s just huge relief now. They’ve got her back. That’s all they wanted.”
Her grandmother Heather Smith previously told the DailyMail Ms Daggett was being treated harshly inside the prison but thankfully was able to speak to her family regularly. She said: “She hasn’t had a shower for a month, she hasn’t had a change of clothes for three months. She has had nothing. Women get treated far worse than male prisoners, who get to go outside, they get sports, a PlayStation and a television – Bella has nothing.”
Drug offences in Dubai are treated with extreme severity, and even possession of tiny amounts for personal use can lead to sentences of up to four years.
