A British influencer could face the death penalty by firing squad if she’s convicted of murder in Dubai. As per campaign group Detained in Dubai, 23-year-old Brooke George, of Gravesend, Kent, stands accused of fatally stabbing a British man with a kitchen knife after the pair met on social media.
George is said to have claimed that she acted in self-defense when the man attacked her. Reports state that the young woman was arrested at Dubai International Airport in the early hours of June 22 as she attempted to leave the country to return to the UK after the incident.
She is currently being held at Bur Dubai jail, though maintains that she was attacked before she grabbed a knife to defend herself.
Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, said: “She reached for a knife after being attacked. Authorities must treat her as a domestic violence survivor while they investigate.
“The former John Lewis worker is defending a murder charge in the UAE after an altercation with British man she met on Facebook. Her world has been shattered and her family left in tears.”
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George’s family, meanwhile, say that the 23-year-old contacted them in distress after being physically assaulted. They claim she arranged a flight home and returned to an apartment to collect her passport before being attacked again.
“After Brooke returned to Dubai for the second time, the dynamic between them had clearly changed,” her mother, Thereza George, said in a statement published by Detained in Dubai.
“The day before the incident, she did not seem like herself. She was quieter and not her usual happy, cheerful self, but she did not tell me why. That evening they went to a bar in Dubai.
