Abusive SA man embroiled in diplomatic storm

An Irish woman, who says her SA husband had abused and trapped her in Dubai, is returning home and will seemingly no longer face charges. News24 reports that Prime Minister Simon Harris said a travel ban on Tori Towey had been lifted and her legal support team in Dubai said charges against her had been dropped. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald drew attention to the case in the Irish Parliament on Tuesday. Towey had faced charges in the UAE since 28 June, but Harris intervened after being made aware of her case, and promised diplomatic efforts would be launched. She had been ‘the victim of a brutal attack’, then ‘found herself waking up not in a hospital, but in a police station’. Ireland said Towey was trapped by a UAE travel ban, engineered by her husband through a pre-emptive complaint, under a system that gives men effective control over foreign travel by women considered their dependents. Harris announced to the Lower House of the Assembly that government representatives would be accompanying Towey to the airport. Her family said Towey met her then-boyfriend as a colleague at Emirates and they were quickly married.

News24 reports that his ongoing abuse was documented; Towey filed a police report in which she alleged he had tried to break her arm in a bathroom door, told her he would kill her, choked her and threatened her with a knife. After neighbours intervened, she was taken away by an ambulance. When Towey ultimately tried to leave for Ireland, according to support group Detained in Dubai, she arrived at the airport to find a travel ban in place due to an earlier complaint lodged by her husband. Such ‘pre-emptive’ complaints were not uncommon in the UAE, the group said, and allowed men to prevent wives from fleeing abuse. ‘The next day, Tori and her husband had some wine, and he became enraged, accusing her of having an affair,’ it said. Towey had been due to appear in court on 18 July on charges of alcohol consumption and attempted suicide. Detained in Dubai CEO Radha Stirling compared the case to previous instances where the UAE charged victims of rape with having sex outside of marriage.

Full News24 report