LIZ BURKE news.com.au 
 
 THE Australian woman jailed in Abu Dhabi after being found guilty of “writing bad words on social media” should be deported soon, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says. 
 
 In February, Jodi Magi, 39, posted a picture on Facebook shaming a driver who had parked across two disabled parking spaces in her apartment block. 
 
 The post included no identifying details or names, but despite this attracted a police complaint leading to the West Australian woman having to appear in court last month. 
 
 Ms Magi says she was found guilty of “writing bad words on social media”, charged under the UAE Cyber Crime Law. 
 
 She was issued with a fine amounting to approximately $3,600, and told she would be deported. 
 
 But yesterday, when she went to pay the fine, Ms Magi said she was arrested and incarcerated. 
 
 “No one’s talking to me, no one’s telling me what’s going on,” she told ABC from the back of a police vehicle. 
 
 “I’m pretty scared.” 
 
 Ms Bishop told reporters this afternoon that Ms Magi was expected to be deported from the UAE in “a very short time”. 
 
 She said Australian consular officials were providing “her and her husband every support we can”. 
 
 It is not known how long Ms Magi will be held by Abu Dhabi authorities. 
 
 When asked of her understanding of the charges, she said: “I have zero idea. I used the internet.” 
 
 “I’m putting my life in the hands of chaos ... I’m terrified,” she said. 
 
 The graphic artist, originally from Perth, has been living in Abu Dhabi teaching graphic design to Emirati women since 2012, according to her website. 
 
 She describes herself as “an Australian who loves a creative challenge. 
 
 On her Facebook page, from which the offending post has apparently been removed, friends have posted messages sending “love and hugs” to the “brave woman”. 
 
 Ms Magi said she has appealed to the Australian embassy for help but has had limited assistance. 
 
 A spokeswoman from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told news.com.au they had been providing consular assistance to Ms Magi since May 25 when she was sentenced. 
 
 “Consular officials have provided all appropriate consular assistance to Ms Magi, in line with the Consular Services Charter, and have kept in close touch with Ms Magi, her husband and lawyer,” a statement issued by the department read. 
 
 In its statement, DFAT said Ms Magi had been custody pending deportation to Australia. 
 
 “This is normal practice in Abu Dhabi.” 
 
 The department issued a warning to travellers in the UAE that local laws that appear harsh by Australian standards still apply to Australian travellers of residents. 
 
 Human rights groups have condemned the arrest. A spokeswoman from Amnesty International told news.com.auit was symptomatic of “the deterioration of the human rights situation in the UAE”, and a broad-ranging crackdown on freedom of expression. 
 
 The group also pointed out there were problems for non-Arabic speakers in detention in the UAE. 
 
 “We are familiar with the problem of detainees being forced to sign documents in Arabic, leading to convictions on charges they don’t understand and may not have realised they were admitting guilt to.” ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| SHARE 
 
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 Link Jodi Magi was arrested after posting a photo on Facebook. 
 
 Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says an Australian woman detained in Abu Dhabi over a Facebook post will be deported soon. 
 
 Jodi Magi, who was arrested and jailed after posting a photo of a car parked across two disabled parking spaces, said the local embassy had provided no assistance to her, other than to recommend she get a lawyer. 
 
 
 
 But Ms Bishop said on Tuesday the 39-year-old graphic designer had been receiving consular assistance since she was charged with cyber crimes under United Arab Emirates law. 
 
 "I understand she was required to pay a fine and that she was taken into detention pending deportation," Ms Bishop said. 
 
 "And I'm expecting her to be deported in a very short time, and Australian consular officials are providing her and her husband whatever support we can." 
 
 Ms Bishop refused to go into detail about the case, or whether there were words attached to the photograph Ms Magi posted. 
 
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 She said she had been briefed on the case and was aware of the nature of it. 
 
 "I understand that it was considered to be a breach of UAE laws and, as I point out on our Smart Traveller advice, when you go to another country you are subject to the laws of that country whether or not they are laws that apply in Australia," she said. 
 
 "This has happened in the past, and she's been detained pending deportation, which I also understand has happened in the past." 
 
 The picture of the vehicle posted on Facebook by Ms Magi had the licence plates blanked out. 
 
 But a complaint landed her in an Abu Dhabi court, where she was found guilty of "writing bad words on social media about a person" and told she would be deported. 
 
 "I have zero idea [what I have done wrong]. I used the internet," Ms Magi told the ABC. 
 
 The photo appears to have been removed from Ms Magi's Facebook page. 
 
 Ms Magi tried to pay the fine of about $3600 and voluntarily deport herself in early July, but local authorities refused until she presented herself at court. 
 
 When she arrived at court to pay her fine she was arrested and jailed. 
 
 "No one is talking to me. No one's telling me what's going on," she told the ABC from the back of a police van. 
 
 "They were about to put me in male lock-up and then they turned me away and no one knows what to do with me. I'm pretty scared." 
 
 In an earlier statement on Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade appeared to reject Ms Magi's remarks that she had not received help, saying it had provided "all appropriate consular assistance". 
 
 "Since 25 May, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been providing consular assistance to an Australian woman, Ms Jodi Magi, in the United Arab Emirates after she was sentenced for a cyber crimes offence," a DFAT spokeswoman said. 
 
 "Consular officials have provided all appropriate consular assistance to Ms Magi, in line with the Consular Services Charter, and have kept in close touch with Ms Magi, her husband and her lawyer." 
 
 The statement said Ms Magi had presented herself to a court in Abu Dhabi on July 12 to pay a court-ordered fine and was taken into custody while she awaits deportation to Australia. 
 
 "This is normal practice in Abu Dhabi," the spokeswoman said. 
 
 Human rights groups warned on Tuesday that the UAE was a dangerous place in which to use social media. 
 
 Nicholas McGeehan, a UAE researcher with Human Rights Watch, said Abu Dhabi was a more repressive place than many people realised. 
 
 "You now have a cyber-crime decree, which acts in conjunction with strong defamation laws, where basically anyone who says anything online, makes any comment online about another person, could fall foul of those laws if someone complains about them, particularly if someone has any connection to the authorities," he said. 
 
 
 
 With Josephine Tovey 
 
 
 
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– They could have just washed her mouth out with soap, but instead Abu Dhabi officials threw Australian Jodi Magi in jail for posting a picture of a parked car online, Australia's ABC News reports. It started in February when Magi, annoyed at a driver who took up two handicap-parking spaces in her apartment's lot, posted a photo (since removed, per the Sydney Morning Herald) of the car on Facebook. The 39-year-old didn't include any identifying elements in the photo, the ABC notes—but the next thing she knew, a complaint was filed and she was in an Abu Dhabi courtroom, where she was found guilty under a UAE cybercrime law of "writing bad words on social media about a person," hit with a $2,700 fine, and told she'd be deported from Abu Dhabi, where she's lived since 2012. Asked by ABC what she had done, she replied, "I have zero idea. I used the Internet." She adds she was forced to sign documents written in Arabic, with no translation provided. When Magi showed up to pay the fine last weekend, things went more awry: She was arrested and taken into custody. "No one is telling me what's going on," she told ABC. "They were about to put me in the male lockup and then they turned me away, and no one knows what to do with me." "This is normal practice in Abu Dhabi," according to a UAE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade statement, per the Australian, while the Aussie foreign affairs minister says she expects Magi to be deported in "a very short time" and that consular officials were helping Magi—an assertion Magi doesn't agree with, per the ABC. A human rights researcher tells the Herald people take a chance when they use social media in stricter countries like the UAE, saying, "Basically anyone who … makes any comment online about another person could fall foul of [cybercrime and defamation] laws if someone complains." (A US man was thrown in jail in the UAE for ranting about his employer.)