A Norwegian woman sentenced to prison in Dubai after reporting she was raped has been set free with a full pardon after her case sparked an outcry.
Marte Dalelv, 24, expressed relief at the end of a four-month ordeal which had seen her prosecuted and convicted for extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a licence, after she lodged the complaint against her boss.
The convictions could have seen her serving a 16-month jail term in the United Arab Emirates but Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum pardoned her on all counts.
The boss, against whom she lodged the complaint and who had been sentenced to 13 months for alcohol consumption and sex outside marriage, was also pardoned, her lawyer Mahmoud Azab told AFP.
"I was told that I've been pardoned," a smiling Dalelv told reporters outside a Scandinavian social centre, adding her passport had been returned and she would leave the Gulf state "as soon as possible".
"I'm very, very happy. This is the perfect ending (and) it feels really, really good," she said.
In Oslo, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide expressed relief the pardon had been granted but criticised the original court verdict.
"I'm... thankful to the emir, who has it within his power to give such a pardon," Eide said.
"The verdict was contrary to several conventions of human rights that the Emirates have signed and promised to upkeep, especially the UN Convention of Women."
Eide had criticised Dalelv's prosecution from the outset saying it was "very strange that a person who reports rape is sentenced for acts which in our part of the world are not even a crime".
Dalelv reported the rape to police back in March and was immediately detained, being released four days later with the assistance of Norwegian diplomats.
She has since been staying at the Norwegian Seamen's Centre in Dubai.
A petition on campaign group Avaaz for her release had obtained over 72,000 signatures.
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