A BRITISH student facing 25 years in prison fears she was stitched up by her own friends after being busted for what she insists was just “a single line of cocaine.”
Mia O’Brien, from Liverpool, was on holiday in Dubai when cops stormed a party last October.
FacebookMia was caught with 50g of cocaine last year[/caption]
GoFundMeShe was found guilty after a one-day trial held in Arabic in July[/caption]
AFPMia is held at the notorious Al-Awir prison[/caption]
Police found 50g of cocaine in the flat and hauled off Mia, a female Brit pal and the pal’s boyfriend.
But while Mia tested positive and was thrown into custody, her friend – identified only as Emma – tested negative, walked free, and is now back in the UK.
Emma’s boyfriend was also sentenced to 25 years.
Mia, a 24-year-old law student, is convinced she took the fall.
Mia’s ex-cellmate — detained for leaving the scene of a car accident and released after paying a £3,000 fine — told The Sun: “Mia had fallen out with her friend as she said it was the boyfriend who had the cocaine.
“Her problem was that they had all been arrested and Mia had it in her system.
“Her friend didn’t so she was released and is back in the UK.
“Mia thinks she must have stitched her up to get home.”
Despite reportedly admitting to snorting a line, Mia never thought she’d be treated as a trafficker, the cellmate said.
But after a one-day trial held in Arabic on July 25, she was handed a 25-year sentence and a £100,000 fine.
The former cellmate said: “She said they were at a party and having fun and suddenly police turned up and put her in a car.
“There was drugs at the party and she said to me ‘I took drugs’. Mia knew she was in big trouble but didn’t seem to think she would be treated as a dealer.
“She seemed to take the view that while she had taken coke, she wasn’t dealing drugs.
“That’s how she acted in the detention centre.
“If what she’s saying is true and all she has done is a line of cocaine, 25 years is a horrifically long sentence. She said she was visiting on holiday and had only been there a few days.”
Mia has since been transferred to Al Awir prison, after months in Dubai’s grim Al Barsha detention centre.
A British mum who shared her cell described the conditions as “vile”.
She said: “There is no light and the toilets are vile.
“One area is full of people who know they have been caught doing something and are going to be jailed for a long time.”
The full extent of Mia’s ordeal only emerged when her mum, Danielle McKenna, 46, launched a fundraiser to fight the conviction — insisting her daughter has been dealt a devastating injustice.
GoFundMeShe was convicted of drug dealing in Dubai[/caption]
GoFundMeMia O’Brien pictured with her mum Danielle[/caption]
GoFundMeMia’s mum maintains her daughter’s innocence[/caption]
Danielle had to launch a fresh fundraiser earlier this month on Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo after GoFundMe suddenly pulled her earlier appeal.
The mum insists her daughter is innocent, branding the case a “miscarriage of justice” and claiming Mia had simply made “a very stupid mistake” while visiting a friend and her boyfriend.
On her new fundraiser – dubbed the “Mia Rose fund” – Danielle wrote: “Hi, as everyone knows by now, Mia has been given a life sentence in Dubai, and is now in central prison.
“I am asking for your help, so that family can get over to Dubai to visit Mia, as we haven’t seen her since last October, and it would also really help with any other fees that we may face a long the way.
“Even if it’s only a £1 it could help us massively. Thank you so much.”
The target has been set at £5,000 – but as of September 13 it had just raised £153.
Inside ‘Dubai’s version of Alcatraz’
MIA O’Brien has been locked up in the Al-Awir Central Prison in 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, 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.
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.
Dubai’s prison system and government deny all the claims.