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Featured Image Credit: GoFundMe
Topics: Dubai, Crime, Drugs, World News
Jen Thomas
The mother of a 23-year-old student who has been jailed for life in Dubai has spoken out following her sentence.
Mia O'Brien, from Merseyside, UK, was a law student in Liverpool before she was arrested in the UAE in October last year.
O'Brien pleaded not guilty, but she was still convicted following a one-day hearing on 25 July.
As well as life in prison, the student has also been fined £100,000, and has since been transferred to another prison after having previously been held in Dubai's central prison, with conditions said to be 'horrific'.
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Her mum, Danielle McKenna, said in a now-deleted GoFundMe that she is 'devastated' and hadn't seen her daughter since October.
McKenna, 46, told the Daily Mail: "She's just made a stupid mistake after going over to see a friend and her boyfriend in Dubai."
She insists her daughter isn't a 'wannabe influencer' and that she paid for her own flight in savings and wasn't paid to go there or to do anything, and it was just a holiday.
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When asked whether she thought her daughter was involved in drug trafficking, Danielle said she doesn't think she was 'asked to bring anything back' but admitted she was 'caught with cocaine in an apartment.'
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"It was about 50 grams," she said, claiming that there were two other people in the flat, including her friend, and they were all 'charged with drug dealing'.
The mum said: "The drugs weren't in little packages - I think it was in one big chunk."
It is estimated that the cocaine had a street value of around £2,500 in the UK, according to The Daily Mail. Danielle said that Mia pleaded 'not guilty' but added 'they don't have a just trial over there,' and said it was 'all in Arabic'.
"She is absolutely devastated by what has happened. Mia is being really strong, but I know she is going through a living hell," Danielle said.
She said that Mia thinks she has 'destroyed her life' and explained that her daughter had planned to be a solicitor or a lawyer.
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The student has been crying on the phone, begging her mum for forgiveness.
She said that the conditions of the prison Mia is being kept in are 'horrendous', adding: "There are no staff really and she has to bang on a big door if she needs anything, she's seen fights and said she has been really scared."
The devastated mum said she was 'shocked and heartbroken' and insists her daughter has 'never been in trouble and is not a drug taker."
"I don't know what has happened, but she is old enough to make her own mind up," she added.
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It is said that Mia has not yet paid the fine and is due to have an appeal hearing in a few weeks, with her mum sharing her hopes for mercy, with Mia thinking 'she might get sent back to serve her sentence here after Ramadan when they might do clemency deals'.
However, despite her sentence, she insists Mia is 'innocent' and is 'the victim of a miscarriage of justice.'