A British TikTok influencer Brooke George is facing firing squad in the United Arab Emirates after she was charged with murdering her boyfriend, who has yet to be identified by authorities.
Reports stated that the 23-year-old was arrested by police in Dubai in the early hours of Monday over allegations that Ms George fatally stabbed a victim she had met on social media in what authorities described as a premeditated attack.
She is reportedly being held at the Bur Dubai Police Station. The suspect, who is well-known on TikTok for mouthing along to popular songs and doing make-up tutorials, faces execution by firing squad if convicted of the crime.
However, advocacy group Detained in Dubai has called for the release of Ms George on bail, while also alleging that the influencer was forcefully stripped naked in custody in presence of male officers, without a female officer present.
The organisation also urged Emirati authorities to treat the case as domestic violence, claiming that the boyfriend became “increasingly controlling and abusive” and he prevented the suspect from leaving Dubai to escape the treatment by seizing her passport.
Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained in Dubai, stated that Ms George, who was on her second visit to the UAE when the incident occurred, asserted she “feared for her life and, reaching for a kitchen knife within her grasp, acted in self defence”.
The suspect’s mother Thereza George, in a statement, insisted that the dynamic of the relationship between her daughter and the deceased boyfriend changed prior to the tragedy.
“After Brooke returned to Dubai for the second time, the dynamic between them had clearly changed. The day before the incident, she did not seem like herself. She was quieter and not her usual happy, cheerful self, but she did not tell me why.
“That evening they went to a bar in Dubai. When I spoke to Brooke right after the incident, she was absolutely terrified. I have never seen my daughter so frightened in my life. She was crying uncontrollably. I could see that one of her eyes was badly swollen and was beginning to close,” the mother stated.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said it was supporting a British woman detained in the UAE and her family.