SHARJAH, UAE — A South African dive assistant jailed in Sharjah for allegedly having sex with her Emirati boss has spoken of her ordeal and finally tasting freedom after being pardoned by the ruler of the conservative UAE emirate. Roxanne Hillier was freed on Thursday, several weeks before she was due to be released and deported, amid mounting criticism of the sentence and an international campaign to have the 22-year-old released. "I'm just relieved to be out of prison and free to go home," Hillier told reporters. "It has been awful ... I am just grateful to the ruler of Sharjah that I was pardoned and am not being deported. I would have hated the humiliation of being led in handcuffs through the airport." A Sharjah court jailed Hillier for three months in May following a police raid of her married boss's dive company premises in Sharjah. However, her 41-year-old boss was acquitted of all charges. Under UAE law adultery and pre-marital sex carry a jail sentence. In Sharjah unrelated men and women are not allowed to be alone together. Describing the moments when police burst into the premises, Hillier said: "I heard lots of angry voices shouting in Arabic, I didn't know what was going on. Then the door burst open and these police entered." She added: "I had no idea that it was illegal for me to be alone in the same place as a man I was unrelated to, if I had I would not have allowed the situation to arise." Hillier said the police took her to be examined by doctors immediately. "They took me to this place where I was examined by a doctor and nurse, both women. They lifted up my clothes and stuck probes everywhere," she said. "I didn't know why they were doing it, no one explained. I just thought if I let them I would be free." 'I NEVER HAD SEX WITH HIM' The tests proved Hillier did not have sex with her boss, according to documents seen by Maktoob Business, but she was jailed anyway. "I never had sex with him," she said. "I still don't understand how I could be jailed for having sex with someone who was found to be innocent of this crime," she added. On her stay in prison, Hillier said she was surprised by her fellow female inmates, describing them as "a lot of very frightened young women". "I was surprised women who had fled their bosses who beat them were put in jail. They tended not to be there for long, but I couldn't understand why they were being punished at all," she said. | | Scuba diving instructor Roxanne Hillier, 22, was convicted and jailed for allegedly having sex with her boss, the owner of a dive shop in the UAE emirate of Sharjah. Hillier's father, Freddie, had spoken of concerns over her mental health just days before her unexpected release. Freddie told Maktoob Business on Sunday he is still concerned that "the experience of the last few weeks will have a long lasting effect in Roxanne". On the moment he found out his daughter was free, Freddie said: "My phone rang and I heard Roxanne's voice on the line. She told me she was free. I couldn't believe it, I thought I was going to collapse." Hillier was met by her mother Ina upon release from prison. "Yes there were tears, but this time tears of joy," Ina said. "When the reality of the situation finally sank in I asked the warden if Roxanne could phone her father, they simply replied 'she can do whatever she wants, she's a free woman'." Hillier and her mother fly to South Africa on Monday morning, where they will go to stay with her grandparents while she recovers. Hillier said she wants to travel again, but plans to study the laws of any country she intended to go to avoid any repeat of her ordeal. by Peter Harrison |
