Allen travelled to Dubai in April, with her social media accounts with tens of thousands of followers showing videos of her test-driving a Mercedes semi-truck, going to the beach, seeing tourist attractions and partying in nightclubs.
The case against Tierra Young Allen, 29, comes as the seven sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates have rules that strictly govern speech far beyond what’s common in Western nations. A middle finger raised in a traffic dispute, a text message calling someone a name or swearing in public easily can spark criminal cases — something that foreign tourists who flock here may not realise until it is too late.
Allen travelled to Dubai in April, with her social media accounts with tens of thousands of followers showing videos of her test-driving a Mercedes semi-truck, going to the beach, seeing tourist attractions and partying in nightclubs.
But toward the end of Allen’s trip, a rental car driven by a friend she was with was involved in a crash April 28, said Radha Stirling, who runs a for-hire advocacy group long critical of the UAE called Detained in Dubai. After the crash, Allen tried to retrieve personal items still inside of the car from the rental agency, sparking an altercation, Stirling said.