- A man from Northern Ireland looks set to spend Christmas in the UAE following his arrest.
- Authorities in Abu Dhabi arrested Craig Ballentine after he posted a negative Google review about his former UAE employer.
- Ballentine’s family said the situation is “a living nightmare.”
A man from Northern Ireland who was arrested after posting a negative review about his former employer in Dubai looks set to spend Christmas in the United Arab Emirates.
Craig Ballentine was arrested in Abu Dhabi’s airport in October over a negative Google review he posted about his former workplace — a dog grooming salon in Dubai, according to Radha Stirling, an advocate who helps foreigners navigate legal trouble in the UAE.
Ballentine spent about six months working at the salon in 2023. He said he needed time off due to illness and presented his employer with medical certificates as proof of his condition.
But the employer reported him as “absconded” with UAE authorities after he missed work, and he was hit with a travel ban.
After getting the ban lifted, Ballentine returned to Northern Ireland, where he wrote a Google review detailing the issues with his former employer.
He was arrested after returning to the UAE for a holiday and now faces charges of slander.
Ballentine, who said he had paid a fine and was given a one-month social media ban, had hoped to get his travel ban lifted and return to Northern Ireland ahead of Christmas.
But he told the BBC that while on the way to a police station to get the ban lifted, he was told authorities wanted to appeal his case and had set a court date for February.
“While I was in the middle of the transit going there, I got the email that the court was not happy and they wanted to appeal again,” he said. “I called friends and family and couldn’t stop crying, because you’re holding on to those emotions, you’re just trying to focus on ‘let’s get out of here.'”
A GoFundMe set up by Ballentine’s family has raised nearly $2,500 to help with his legal fees.
“What started out as a holiday to catch up with friends for Craig has turned out to be a living nightmare,” the family says on the page.
“At present legal fees are crippling and any money raised will go to help clearing these costs,” they added.
Ballentine has also appealed to politicians to support his case with the help of Radha Stirling, a representative from the campaign group “Detained in Dubai.”
“The amount of support Craig has is quite incredible,” Stirling said. “Charging someone for an online review is something everyone can imagine happening to them. We’ve received an influx of worried tourists contacting us to check their police status in Dubai and it’s certainly a good idea.”
Stirling has helped several tourists held up in the country on exaggerated charges and forced to pay costly fees as a resolution. She previously told Business Insider that it’s relatively easy to file a complaint that can prevent someone from leaving the country.
“There’s been a lot of cases in the past where people have been accused of road rage or flipping the middle finger and that kind of thing, even when they haven’t,” Stirling previously told BI. “Then someone goes down to the police station, and whatever they say is automatically believed. They don’t need evidence.”
In one case Stirling worked on, a female college student lightly nudged an airport security officer during a security screening search. They accused her of assault, and she was unable to leave the nation for months.
In another case, a woman was detained after she was accused of screaming, which her accusers said violated a vague law criminalizing “offensive behavior” like rudeness or swearing. She paid $1,000 to have the travel ban that prevented her from leaving lifted, though her accusers initially demanded $10,000.
“It’s actually culturally widespread, and the police haven’t done anything to clamp down on that sort of extortion,” Stirling previously told BI.
