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Russian tourist suspected of exchanging counterfeit banknote back home from UAE

Idrisova’s husband and five children, other family members and fellow villagers met her at the Ufa Airport

311724.GIF

UFA, January 6 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian tourist Guzel Idrisova, who had been detained in the United Arab Emirates on suspicion of an attempt to exchange a counterfeit banknote, returned home on Friday.

Idrisova’s husband and five children, other family members and fellow villagers met her at the Ufa Airport.

“Joint efforts of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the government of Bashkortostan led to the rapid return of our fellow citizen home,” press secretary of the Bashkortostan president Artyom Valiyev told Itar-Tass. He also welcomed Idrisova at the airport.

“The Russian Foreign Ministry appealed to the UAE court for a quick hearing of the case: there is no deadline for hearing such cases in the Emirates. By request of Bashkortostan President Rustem Khamitov, the Russian consulate general in Dubai assigned a local lawyer to the Russian citizen for free,” he said.

“The family of Idrisova, a mother of five children, received material, psychological and social aid. The republic’s reserve fund provided her husband with 305,000 rubles to compensate for her hotel fees. She was staying at the hotel to wait for a court ruling,” Valiyev said.

“Russia convinced the detectives and the court that the criminal case must be dropped because the action was not intentional. The court in Sharjah, where the tourist was detained, ordered on Thursday that she must have her passport back, any travel restrictions on her must be lifted, and she might return home.

Idrisova came to the UAE as a tourist on November 5, 2011. She tried to exchange dollars for the local currency but the cashier decided that one banknote was counterfeit and called the police. The court found no evidence to confirm that the woman had brought the counterfeit banknote from her home country. She was more likely to get it as change in a local store.

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