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A British women held in Dubai over Facebook posts in which she insulted her ex-husband's new wife has said she "wanted to die" during her ordeal.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, returned to Heathrow Friday morning after being arrested at Dubai airport in March over a 2016 post in which she compared her former partner's new Tunisian wife to a horse.

"The day before I was told I was free to go I'd given up hope," Shahravesh told the Sunday People. "I was suicidal. I felt like I was never going to see my daughter again and sent a message to my sister saying 'I can't do this any more.'"

"I could see my whole life flashing before my eyes and I just wanted to die. It was torture to me."

Shahravesh had fallen foul of Dubai's draconian online defamation laws. Despite posting the insult while in the UK, she was arrested in the UAE over a 2016 Facebook post which reportedly read: "Damn you. You left me for this horse."

The ordeal began when she travelled to the emirate with her daughter, Paris, to attend the funeral of ex-husband Pedro Manuel Coreia Dos Santos after authorities received a complaint over her Facebook activity.

She faced up to two years prison in Dubai and a $65,000 fine.

A judge ordered her passport should be returned if she paid a fine of 3,000 UAE Dirham ($816) in a scheduled court appearance on Thursday, Press Association reported.

The UAE insist she wasn't jailed but was released on bail after her arrest, although she was prevented from leaving the country.

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