A BRIT woman given a life sentence over a “very stupid mistake” is serving her time in one of Dubai’s most hellish prisons.
Mia O’Brien, a 23-year-old from Liverpool, is reportedly being held in Al-Awir prison which is notorious for once being dubbed “Dubai’s version of Alcatraz”.
Mia O’Brien is serving a life sentence in one of Dubai’s most hellish prisons[/caption]
The Al-Awir prison is notorious for facing dozens of horror allegations of abuse, torture and rape from former inmates[/caption]
Allegations of electrocution torture, daily rape claims and preventing medication for sick inmates have all been made in the past.
Law student Mia got “mixed up with the wrong so-called friends” while at university, according to her devastated mum Danielle McKenna.
In October, she was arrested before being jailed in Dubai for life.
Her family are yet to say what Mia was found guilty of in the strict United Arab Emirates city.
Life sentences can often be handed down for several reasons including drug trafficking and possession, murder or attempted murder, human trafficking and terrorism-related activities.
Danielle announced her daughter’s daunting predicament through a GoFundMe page which has since been deleted.
She said she has been locked up in “central prison” which is believed to be the Al-Awir prison in central Dubai.
The jail is used for both male and female convicts with them being seperated once they step through the chilling gates.
Women make up one of the four blocks inside the huge jail, according to the British Government website.
Horror stories from inmates who have previously been locked up and those from the families of Brits still trapped behind bars paint a disturbing picture of Al-Awir.
In 2012, Karl Williams was imprisoned for a year after police found drugs in the boot of his hire car.
He compared the Al-Awir jail to the “Dubai version of Alcatraz” during his sentence.
In his memoir, he recalled seeing inmates being stabbed to death in violent clashes that were not stopped by guards.
In a statement released by Williams, he said that his testicles had been electrocuted while he was interrogated by police.
“They pulled down my trousers, spread my legs and started to electrocute my testicles,” he wrote in the statement.
“It was unbelievably painful. I was so scared. I started to believe that I was going to die in that room.”
Their lawyers also said that the men were forced to sign documents in Arabic at gunpoint.
Karl claimed Russian gangsters ruled the prison wards and allegedly used HIV-positive inmates to rape and deliberately infect others as a form of punishment.
Footballer Billy Hood alleged he saw prisoners tortured and left to die from diseases[/caption]
Albert Douglas told The Sun Online prisoners are raped, tortured and even starved by the cruel guards[/caption]
A report earlier this year claimed sexual abuse and rape were an “everyday occurrence” inside the jails.
At least four HIV-positive prisoners at Al-Awir were allegedly denied medication up to five months, according to another shocking report by the Human Rights Watch.
British footballer Billy Hood made similar accusations as he said prisoners were tortured and left to die from diseases.
His claims were repeated in 2021 by 60-year-old Albert Douglas who told The Sun Online prisoners are raped, tortured and even starved by the cruel guards.
The grandad told his son about how twenty-year-old boys in his cell were hung upside down and beaten for “sport” and recalled how a great-grandad was just “skin and bone” after being starved for weeks.
Guards at the central prison are also alleged to have burnt off the private parts of a prisoner who was stationed in the bunk below Albert.
Prisoners have also allegedly been subjected to inhumane conditions including drinking from a communal toilet.
Dubai’s prison system and government deny all the claims.
What can Mia expect to be given?
Each inmate is supposed to be given a mattress, blanket and a pillow – but the British embassy highlights online that it often takes some time for them to be handed out.
Another major issue Mia will face is when she can meet and speak to her family.
In Dubai, visitations happen just once a week on Wednesdays.
Visits can often be cancelled at the last minute or cut short without any prior warning.
Mia’s mother Danielle McKenna (right) is appealing for help[/caption]
Mia attended university to study law but made a ‘stupid mistake’ which has left her jailed[/caption]
In terms of phone calls, prisoners are allowed to make regular calls but in Dubai each individual call must reportedly be cleared with the guards first.
Officers can even block all calls for a sustained period of time as punishment for misbehaving.
Prisoners are given three meals a day but they almost always include rice.
The British embassy also regularly warns people to avoid the tap water which is freely available in the canteen and insists they but bottled water instead over health concerns.
The blocks are also known to be very cold at night with a constant air conditioning unit on full blast.
UAE’s dark truth
Many of the prisons in the UAE have a twisted past, according to inmates.
Zara-Jayne Moisey was locked up in the filthy Al-Barsha prison after she went to report a rape in 2016.
Zara, then 25, was thrown in jail after reporting she was raped by two British men — cousins Louis Harris and David Butlin.
Authorities said a video by one of the men proved the sex was consensual, and Zara faced a year in prison for extra-marital and booze offences.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun in 2016, Zara-Jayne recalled the horrific conditions she was forced to live in.
“It was the most frightening experience of my life, absolute torture, and all because I went to the police about what happened in the hotel room,” she said.
“I will never forget the jail, it’s the worst place I have ever been.
“They kept the lights off in the day so we’d be eating in pitch blackness. Then they turned them on at night so no one could sleep.”
A woman shows a photographer around Al-Awir central prison[/caption]
Zara-Jayne Moisey described her ordeal in a Dubai prison as ‘absolute torture’[/caption]