Bigg Boss fame Sofia Hayat recalls her horrifying Dubai ordeal; claims ‘I had flown to Dubai to marry my boyfriend, instead I was jailed’

Sofia Hayat recalls her horrifying ordeal in Dubai, where she had gone to meet and marry her now ex-boyfriend Mubarak Eissa Mubarak Mohammed El Meraikhi. However, it turned out Sofia got detained at the airport and she faced a series of challenges. Here's what happened:

I was arrested at Dubai Airport at 3 am on my way to Al Ulla on the 31st of December 2023. It was completely unexpected. I was thrown into jail at the airport. I asked to call the British embassy but they would not let me. When I asked why I was being detained, the policeman told me to shut up. There was a small window that had bars in which I could look out to another office, but no one was there. I started to feel ill so I called out of the small window. Nobody came. After an hour they came and they called in the paramedics to stabilise me. They offered me medication which I refused to take as I was unsure what it was.

After 6 hours in jail, I was transported to Bur Dubai Police Station in the back of a caged police van accompanied by a female police officer. It was a 25-minute journey. I am claustrophobic and was panicking as it was like a jail. The police officer was watching TikTok videos of Bollywood.

When I got to the police station, I was taken to the back rooms where 4 police officers shouted at me saying, "you are extorting a man for £5000 or you will release a s*x video". My mouth dropped and I cried... My ex-boyfriend, Mubarak Eissa Mubarak Mohammed El Meraikhi, who owed me £5000, lied to the police as he did not want to give my money back. However, the police went through my mobile phone and they found a text from me to him saying "unless you give me the money I will put your face on social media and tell the world what you did". This is a criminal offence in Dubai with a 2-year jail sentence or £50,000 fine. I was only let off because they could see he owed me money by reading the text messages. I was close to going to jail.

I had flown to Dubai to marry him, instead, I was jailed and then detained for 2 months. The police took my phone and I had no access to my bank accounts. In the 2 months I was detained, I was moving address every 4/5 days because the police did not know when I would go home. Mubarak met me when he came to me in London, for healing. He asked me to marry him and I was in Dubai to get married and to set up my business there. Instead, I get thrown into jail. I needed urgent medication which was unavailable in Dubai. But I was still not allowed to leave.

When I was finally in court with the prosecution, they told me my ex had a criminal record already and was married, which I did not know. I had to close my business in London. My total losses were around £40,000. I want to tell my story. Dubai is not what it seems and the laws favour the locals even if they are wrong.

When I reported Mubarak on the 30th of December at the BUR DUBAI police station, they did not take my complaint. The police lady laughed at me, and when I asked why she was laughing at me, she simply said, I'm not laughing at you. She did ask me what Mubarak did in my home, and when I told her we had sex*al relations she said "Astagfarullah''. She told me if we had s*x in Dubai, then I would have been in bigger trouble. I told her we were going to be married, but she said it didn't matter. Apparently, he is still married, so charges of adultery may have come into force.

The prosecution was concerned about why my report took so long to land on their desk. After 5 weeks of detainment, Mubarak did go to the police and released the case, because I told him I would open a case against him. He got scared so released me, but the court did not release me. The police also failed to put my release certificate in the file, which the prosecution managed to retrieve. I also had a lawyer/pro who was lying to me and told me he was a lawyer when he was a PRO. He was telling me it would cost £2000 to translate 14 text messages. I ended up paying £150 when I searched online for a legal translator. It was the craziest 2 months of my life. Now I am quickly picking up the pieces of my life and business. No doubt, I will never return there again.

She wrote back then, “My priority is to get home to London where my life is on hold. I run a business, a healing practice. Both are shut down now for a month. I have no income and my savings are being used whilst I am in Dubai. I am spending £1000 a week in accommodation and food plus other expenses on taxis to and from the police station. I also have to pay bills in my London home.”