British motorcycling champion Sean Emmett cleared to return home following wife's balcony death in Dubai
He had been trapped in the Emirate since February
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Your support makes all the difference.A British motorcycling champion has been cleared to return home from Dubai nine months after his passport was detained without explanation following the death of his wife on their honeymoon.
Sean Emmett, 43, learned from the British Embassy in Dubai on Monday that the Emirate’s Chief Prosecutor had closed the case. Abbie Emmett, 27, died after falling from the couple’s fourth-floor hotel window on 19 February.
“It's a huge relief to be told the case and investigation is finally closed,” Mr Emmett, of Addlestone Surrey, told The Independent today. “My three children and mum are over the moon that it's nearly over.”
Mr Emmett now hopes to return to Britain by early December. “I think it will really hit me as it's all been a bit surreal,” he said. “I want to visit Abbie's grave and begin my grieving process, as I haven't really been able to yet.”
Mr Emmett, who won 19 Superbike races during his career, had arrived in Dubai with his wife, a percussionist from Surrey, for a two-day stopover after their wedding in South Africa.
He says she fell over a guardrail outside the window after becoming upset when she dropped her wedding ring.
Nine days after her death, which was recorded as suicide but which Mr Emmett insists was an accident, he returned to a police station to sign release papers for her body.
But when police smelled alcohol they tested Mr Emmett and found 28 micrograms in his breath - below the UK drink-drive limit but illegal for anyone in public in Dubai.
Police locked Mr Emmett in a cell for two days, fined him £340 for drinking alcohol without a licence and detained his passport.
In September, The Independent reported that Mr Emmett, whose children are from his first marriage, had broken his silence to call for a campaign for the return of his passport. A petition to the Government gained almost 14,000 signatures.
“I think the support from the public has had a huge effect on things as I could have been long forgotten without their continual support,” he said.
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