Petitioners have called for the release of Dinchi Lar, a Nigerian tourist, sentenced to one-year imprisonment by Dubai authorities.
   
Already, 1,085  out of the expected 1,500 people have signed a petition initiated by her family member, Jerry Doubles, seeking for Lar’s release.

 
Her offence, according to the petition, was that she posted a video on social media calling for help because she and other Nigerians were being detained for up to eight hours at the airport.  
   
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Dubai Police accused her of cybercrime, and she was detained for 22 days and sentenced to jail. 
   
According to the family, on August 31, Lar arrived in Dubai and was detained for eight hours for no cause initially, but it was later revealed that she had a family VISA type and she came alone.  After her sister showed up, she was released.
 
“She made a video calling for help during the eight hours of detention. She posted the video and a picture on her Twitter handle (@dunchichi) and later deleted the video.

“On September 6, she was getting ready to leave Dubai for Nigeria. She got flagged at the airport. The airline referred her to some immigration offices and finally, she was referred to the CID department of the Police. Before the visit to the CID, she and her sister visited the Nigerian consulate. 
   
“A consular was sent to accompany them. On arrival, her sister and the consular were told to leave because they said it would take some hours to ask her questions. They left Dinchi there. From there, she was never released.

“She was accused of cybercrime and they detained her from September 6 to September 28, when the first court hearing was scheduled. She was detained for 22days.
 
“The Nigerian consular requested a visit after the court hearing and it was granted. So the consular and her sister went to see her that day since they last saw her on September 6, at the CID office.
   
She was sentenced to a year in prison on October 12, 2022. Prior to this, she was quarantined.
 
“She has had no legal representation or counsel and has not received a written document of the judgment. Neither her sister nor the Consulate had received the document. She knew about the judgment through “word of mouth”