A British TikTok influencer is facing possible execution in Dubai after allegedly stabbing a man to death in what she says was an act of self-defense, according to the advocacy group Detained in Dubai.
Brooke George, 23, a former department store worker from Kent in eastern England, has been charged with the murder of an unidentified 26-year-old man she met on Facebook.
Dubai police have charged George with premeditated murder. If found guilty, she may be executed by firing squad, according to the website Detained in Dubai — a group that works to “ensure the security of foreign nationals in the Gulf from unjust detention, wrongful prosecution, and all other violations of their human rights,” according to its website. It bills itself as “equal parts legal advisory, communications agency, think tank, and human rights organisation.”
Detained in Dubai handout
George, whose TikTok account features videos of her mouthing along to popular songs and doing make-up tutorials, traveled to Dubai after developing an online relationship with the man, the group says.
She described her first visit, which lasted a week, as “the time of my life.”
DiD said in a statement she was “wrapped up in the joy of the experience” and had brushed aside certain “concerns” she felt, including over a “bikini clad professional photo shoot arranged during her first visit.”
On June 1, George posted several videos and pictures from Dubai on Instagram with the caption: “God has a plan. Trust it, Live it, Enjoy it.”
“Begging for her passport”
On George’s second visit to the UAE, however, the man’s behavior changed, DiD said. According to the advocacy group’s statement, which cites George directly, he became “increasingly controlling and abusive.”
George told her friends that “things weren’t right,” according to DiD, and claimed she saw “disturbing videos” on the man’s computer. When she discovered that he had only booked her a one-way ticket, she was left “alarmed and wanting to return home.”
After a night at an Irish bar, DiD says the man became intoxicated and “assaulted her in the car before continuing the attack after they returned to the apartment.”
George’s family has said she contacted them in a panic after he hit her, according to the group. After arranging a flight home, she claims she found her belongings strewn about the apartment when she went back to get her passport.
Detained In Dubai Handout
“The family say she was crying and begging for her passport’s return when she was punched hard in the face and attacked,” DiD said in its statement. “Brooke says she feared for her life and, reaching for a kitchen knife within her grasp, acted in self defense.”
The day before the incident, “she was quieter and not her usual happy, cheerful self, but she did not tell me why,” George’s mother, Thereza George, was quoted as telling the DiD, which has campaigned for years on behalf of foreign nationals arrested in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states.
Speaking to George after the alleged stabbing, she added that she had “never seen my daughter so frightened in my life. She was crying uncontrollably. I could see that one of her eyes was badly swollen and was beginning to close.”
Promises of luxury
Police arrested George in the early hours of June 22. She is being held at the Bur Dubai police station, where, in an unrelated case, a U.K. inquest found that 39-year-old Briton Lee Bradley Brown had died in custody in 2011 after being handcuffed to a chair and beaten.
George was forced to strip naked in front of male officers, with no female officers present, according DiD, and broke down in tears when telling her family of the ordeal.
DiD said she has not been allowed to contact the British embassy and has been forced to make statements without a lawyer present.
The Dubai Police and UAE Embassy did not immediately respond to a CBS News request for comment on the allegations made by George and her family via DiD.
A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office told CBS News, “We are in touch with a British woman detained in the UAE, we are supporting her family, and we are in contact with the local authorities.”
Martin Berry/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
“This case raises serious concerns about violence against women, the right to self defence, due process and the treatment of British nationals detained overseas,” Detained in Dubai CEO Radha Stirling said in the statement.
The group is pushing for George to receive a fair trial, and it says she should be released on bail pending the investigation.
Stirling said that in recent years, increasing numbers of women, including influencers, models and travelers, have been “lured to Dubai with promises of luxury lifestyles, paid work, holidays or romantic relationships, only to later allege that they were subjected to …sexual exploitation, coercion, violence or other degrading treatment.”
Rape victims have faced prosecution in Dubai for offenses such as extra-marital sex, according to the group. In one 2024 incident, Irish national Tori Towey was detained after attempting to flee alleged domestic abuse and attempting suicide, according to DiD.