When You Leave a Bad Review and they Extradite You: Impounding the Ex-Dog Groomer

While there’s no telling exactly what the future might hold (especially when those in power hate hate hate to have anything negative said about them), it’s a pretty safe bet that if you post something online, incendiary or not, you don’t think twice about the greater ramifications.

Because usually there are none. Everyone spouts off their view, we all go to sleep perturbed, then we get up and do the same thing the next day.

You probably think even less when you’re leaving a review, whether it’s a local business or a corporation, whether it’s a place you’ve been or just one you think it’s funny to review. You’d never fear jail time, would you?

Well you’d better inform yourself on the UAE’s “cybercrime laws,” which could put you in the stockade if you so much as leave a bad review a business owner disagrees with.

On that note, meet Craig Ballentine, of Northern Ireland. Craig worked for six months in a dog grooming shop in Dubai until he requested time off to manage his fibromialgia. When the business reported that he had “absconded” and subsequently fired him and got a travel ban placed on his passport. From the comfort of his home country, he posted a Google review relating his experience.

And when he later traveled to the UAE on vacation, he was sent to Dubai and imprisoned on “slander” charges.

Though Radha Stirling of campaign group Detained in Dubai said “there is almost zero chance of the case against him being dropped,” Craig has returned home as of December 2024, having paid a fine and with a potential court date still to come.

When it comes to Thailand, the UAE, Dubai… I guess be careful what you post.