A man was sentenced to 3 months in a Dubai jail after he insulted airport staff who didn't bring his mom a wheelchair

• A man was sentenced to three months in a Dubai prison after he insulted airport staff last year.
• The incident happened when airport staff were slow to bring his mom a wheelchair, reports say.
• The UAE prohibits the use of explicit language, with penalties of up to a year in jail.

A British tourist was sentenced to three months in a Dubai prison after he insulted airport staff who were slow to bring his mom a wheelchair, according to The National.

The newspaper said the unnamed man was handed the sentence earlier this month by the Dubai Court of Appeal after his appeal against a 10,000 UAE Dirham fine ($2,723) was rejected.

He was initially fined for the incident, in which he cursed at an airport employee in a transit area of Dubai International Airport in February last year, according to MailOnline.

The court heard that the man became abusive after airline staff said they could not immediately provide a wheelchair to ferry his mother to a shuttle bus, that would then transport them to a different terminal, MailOnline reported.

"I saw the traveler repeatedly asking an airport desk employee about the wheelchair and expected that he might have not understood her explanation," the airport employee said in court, per The National.

"When I tried to explain it to him, he insulted me using very bad language," the airport employee said, according to the newspaper.

According to MailOnline, the employee asked the man not to use curse words, to which he replied that he did not care.

The employee then called the police, the newspaper reported.

Dubai's court system did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The use of explicit language in public is prohibited in the UAE, with the use of specific curse words carrying a punishment of up to a year in prison and fines as high as 10,000 dirhams.

In the past, tourists have been detained in Dubai over cursing and otherwise offensive behavior, even if sent via text.

In February 2021, a British woman was detained after she was caught sending a rude message to her roommate in a WhatsApp message.

Last month, a New York student was sentenced to a year in prison after reportedly touching a Dubai airport security guard on the arm when officers refused to help her put back on a medical brace after a security check.

The woman ultimately had her sentence commuted and was allowed to leave Dubai shortly after her sentencing.