Mother held in Dubai over Facebook posts calling ex-husband's new wife a horse says she 'wanted to die'

A mother detained in Dubai over Facebook posts calling her ex-husband’s new wife a “horse” has said she thought she would never see her daughter again.

Laleh Shahravesh said the day before she was told she was free to go, she had given up hope and “wanted to die”.

Ms Shahravesh, 55, from Richmond, south-west London, was detained in Dubai under controversial cyber-crime laws as she visited with her daughter in March for the funeral of ex-husband Pedro Correia Dos Santos, who was Paris’s father.

She was originally warned she faced up to two years in prison over the posts made three years ago about her ex-husbands new wife, but on Thursday a judge ordered that her passport would be returned if she paid a fine of 3,000 UAE Dirham (£624).

Ms Shahravesh returned to Heathrow on Friday morning, according to the Detained in Dubai campaign group that supported her, and was reunited with 14-year-old daughter Paris in an emotional scene at the airport.

She told the Sunday People: “The day before I was told I was free to go I’d given up hope.

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“I was suicidal. I felt like I was never going to see my daughter again and sent a message to my sister saying ‘I can’t do this any more’.

She went on: “I told her, ‘It’s killing me, every day is killing me.’ I felt so much pain and then I turned off my phone.

“I could see my whole life flashing before my eyes and I just wanted to die. It was torture to me.”