New York Student Sentenced To One Year In Dubai Prison Over Airport Incident

A 21-year-old New York college student, Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, was sentenced to one year in prison in Dubai after she was accused of assaulting and insulting an airport customs official during a layover.

De Los Santos, a student at Lehman College in the Bronx, was travelling from Istanbul to New York with a friend when they stopped at Dubai International Airport during a 10-hour layover in July 2023.

According to the account reported by an advocacy group, female security officers asked her to remove a medical waist trainer she was wearing following surgery. After she complied, she reportedly asked the officers for assistance in putting it back on.

When the officers allegedly failed to help her and blocked her way out, De Los Santos said she gently touched one officer’s arm to guide her out of the way while calling her friend for assistance.

The incident led to her detention and the imposition of a travel ban, preventing her from leaving the United Arab Emirates even though she was only in the country for a connecting flight.

A Dubai court initially ordered her to pay a fine of 10,000 dirhams, approximately $2,700, but the airport officials appealed the decision.

The appeal eventually resulted in a one-year prison sentence after she was accused of “assaulting and insulting” airport staff.

The case attracted international attention, with the advocacy group Detained in Dubai arguing that the punishment was excessive and calling for her release.

The United States State Department also confirmed that it was aware of the case and said it was in contact with De Los Santos and her family.

However, the sentence was later commuted, and De Los Santos was freed after spending about five months dealing with the case in Dubai. She subsequently boarded a flight back to New York.

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