A Norwegian woman who was sentenced to prison in Dubai for reporting to police she was raped by a colleague has been pardoned and will be heading home soon.
Marte Deborah Dalelv told reporters that authorities said she would be pardoned, that they would return her passport back to her and that she'd be able to go home.
"We want to make it as soon as possible," she said.
The 24-year-old graphic designer, who went to Dubai on a work trip, is currently waiting for her exit visa to be approved so she can leave the country.
A spokeswoman for Norway's Foreign Ministry, Ragnhild Imerslund, said Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced Dalelv was free to travel as well as allowed to remain in the country.
Dalelv was imprisoned in Dubai after she reported to local authorities that she had been raped by one of her colleagues after a night of drinking.
When she got to the Bur Dubai police station officers asked her if she had "called police because [she ] just didn't like it." She was then charged with sex outside of marriage and for public consumption of alcohol, both of which are illegal in the United Arab Emirates.
She spent three days in jail and has been fired from her job, Al Mana Interiors, since the incident.
