Relief: Marte Deborah Dalelv said she was given back her passport on Sunday by the public prosecutor's office and that her 16-month sentence for having sex outside marriage has been dropped
A Norwegian woman at the center of a Dubai rape claim dispute says she has been pardoned and is free to leave the country.
Marte Deborah Dalelv said she was given back her passport Sunday by the public prosecutor's office and that her 16-month sentence for having sex outside marriage has been dropped.
The 24-year-old designer claimed she was raped in March by a co-worker, but she was charged with the sex offense after going to police in Dubai in a case that highlighted the clash between the city's Western-friendly atmosphere and its Islamic-based legal codes.
Her sentencing last week stirred outrage in the West.
Speaking this weekend of her ordeal, the Norwegian claimed during an interview about the assault police asked her: 'Are you sure you called the police because you just didn't like it?'
They took her passport away and she was convicted and sentenced on charges of having unlawful sex, making a false statement and illegal consumption of alcohol.
Her alleged rapist was sentenced to three months less prison time than she got.
Norwegian businesswoman Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, was sentenced to 16 months in prison for extramarital sex after she reported being raped
Ms Dalelv said the attack happened after she had been out at a bar with her colleagues and friends.
She told CNN that she had a male co-worker to escort her to her room as the hotel was 'large and confusing' and she did not want to be wandering aloe as she had been drinking.
She said she realised the room was not hers, and after initially objecting when he pulled her inside by her handbag, she agreed to go in 'to calm the situation down'.
Her next memory, she says, is waking up on her front while he was raping her.
When the hotel wake-up call knocked on the door, she dressed and went down to reception to call police.
Up to a dozen make officers arrived and took statements from Ms Dalelv and her alleged attacker.
When she arrived at Bur Dubai police station, she said police asked her of events to officers, 'Are you sure you called the police because you just didn't like it?'
She replied: '"Well of course I didn't like it." That is when I knew, I don't think they are going to believe me at all.'
She was then examined and tested for alcohol and locked in a prison cell for four days without explanation.
Eventually she was able to contact her parents on the third day and ask them to contact the Norwegian Embassy who arranged her release.
She claims she was advised to claim that the rape was in fact voluntary in order for the issue to 'go away'.
But she was then charged with making a false statement.
Ms Dalelv claims she was fired from her position with Al Mana Interiors - which is owned by Janet Jackson's husband, Wissam Al Mana - during the ordeal.
A spokesman for the Qatari billionaire's company, Al Mana Interiors, strongly denied the claims from Marte Deborah Dalelv, saying instead its representatives were 'by her side' throughout the 'ordeal' and that the firm was forced to let her go after she 'declined to have positive and constructive discussions about her employment status.'
Dalelv was sentenced to one year and four months in jail but as Norway has no extradition treaty with Dubai, her future is uncertain.
Janet Jackson married the Qatari billionaire in a secret ceremony last year. The pair have been together for three years after meeting in 2010.
The young Norwegian woman's horror story is not unique.
Earlier this year Australian Alicia Gali, 27, spoke of how she was thrown in a Dubai jail for eight months after she reported a rape.
Gali was working at hotel chain Starwood when her drink was spiked in the staff bar.
She awoke to find that three colleagues had raped her, but when she went to a hospital for help, they turned her over to the police and she was charged with illicit sex outside marriage.
Under UAE law, rapists can only be convicted if either the perpetrator confesses or if four adult Muslim males witness the crime.
Under the Sharia-influenced laws, sex before marriage is completely forbidden and an unmarried couple holding hands in public can be jailed.
Foreigners jailed in Dubai are deported immediately after completing their sentences.
Culled from DAILYMAIL
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