A Norwegian woman sentenced to prison in Dubai after reporting she was raped was set free with a full pardon on Monday after her case sparked an outcry. Marte Dalelv, 24, expressed relief at the end of a four-month ordeal which had seen her prosecuted and convicted for extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a licence, after she lodged the complaint against her boss.
The convictions could have seen her serving a 16-month jail term in the United Arab Emirates but Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum pardoned her on all counts. The boss, against whom she lodged the complaint and who had been sentenced to 13 months for alcohol consumption and sex outside marriage, was also pardoned, her lawyer Mahmoud Azab told AFP.
"I was told that I've been pardoned," a smiling Dalelv told reporters outside a Scandinavian social centre, adding her passport had been returned and she would leave the Gulf state "as soon as possible". "I'm very, very happy. This is the perfect ending (and) it feels really, really good," she said. In Oslo, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide expressed relief the pardon had been granted but criticised the original court verdict.
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