A British TikTok influencer is facing possible execution in Dubai after allegedly stabbing a man to death in what she says was an act of self-defence, reported BBC.
Brooke George, 23, a former department store worker from Kent in eastern England, has been charged with the murder of an unidentified 26-year-old man she met on Facebook.
Dubai police have charged Brooke George with premeditated murder. If found guilty, she may be executed by firing squad, according to the website Detained in Dubai — a group that works to "ensure the security of foreign nationals in the Gulf from unjust detention, wrongful prosecution, and all other violations of their human rights," according to its website. It bills itself as "equal parts legal advisory, communications agency, think tank, and human rights organisation."
Brooke George, whose TikTok account features videos of her mouthing along to popular songs and doing make-up tutorials, travelled to Dubai after developing an online relationship with the man, the group says.
She described her first visit, which lasted a week, as "the time of my life".
DiD said in a statement she was "wrapped up in the joy of the experience" and had brushed aside certain "concerns" she felt, including over a "bikini clad professional photoshoot arranged during her first visit."
On June 1, Brooke George posted several videos and pictures from Dubai on Instagram with the caption: "God has a plan. Trust it, Live it, Enjoy it."
On George's second visit to the UAE, however, the man's behaviour changed, DiD said. According to the advocacy group's statement, which cites George directly, he became "increasingly controlling and abusive."
George told her friends that "things weren't right", according to DiD, and claimed she saw "disturbing videos" on the man's computer. When she discovered that he had only booked her a one-way ticket, she was left "alarmed and wanting to return home."
After a night at an Irish bar, DiD says the man became intoxicated and "assaulted her in the car before continuing the attack after they returned to the apartment."
George's family has said she contacted them in a panic after he hit her, according to the group. After arranging a flight home, she claims she found her belongings strewn about the apartment when she went back to get her passport.
"The family say she was crying and begging for her passport's return when she was punched hard in the face and attacked," DiD said in its statement. "Brooke says she feared for her life and, reaching for a kitchen knife within her grasp, acted in self-defence."
The day before the incident, "she was quieter and not her usual happy, cheerful self, but she did not tell me why," George's mother, Thereza George, was quoted as telling the DiD, which has campaigned for years on behalf of foreign nationals arrested in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states.
Police arrested George in the early hours of June 22. She is being held at the Bur Dubai police station. George was forced to strip naked in front of male officers, with no female officers present, according to DiD, and broke down in tears when telling her family of the ordeal.
DiD said she has not been allowed to contact the British embassy and has been forced to make statements without a lawyer present.
The Dubai Police and UAE Embassy did not immediately respond to a CBS News request for comment on the allegations made by George and her family via DiD.
A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office told CBS News, "We are in touch with a British woman detained in the UAE, we are supporting her family, and we are in contact with the local authorities."