US student held in Dubai for weeks for tapping security officer’s arm

Advocacy group said Elizabeth Polanco de los Santos, 21, accused of assaulting and insulting' contact, faced up to year in prison

Elizabeth Polanco de los Santos, a New York college student, arrived in Dubai in July meaning to take only an hours-long layover during an international trip. But because she allegedly touched an airport security officer's arm, she was detained there for more than two months and endured the threat of spending more than a year in prison before she was cleared to return home Tuesday, according to an advocacy group which supported her.

Polanco's nightmare stay in Dubai began as she traveled back to New York City from Istanbul with a friend on 14 July when her ordeal began. The 21-year-old, a business arts major at Lehman College in the Bronx, had stopped there for a connecting flight when airport customs officers told her to take off a waist compression device she was wearing after having surgery.