«I have just been informed that Ilaria De Rosa, the young flight attendant from Resana (Treviso) arrested in Saudi Arabia last May, was expelled and boarded on the Saudia Airlines Jeddah-Rome flight, arriving in Rome at 1.40pm local time» . This was reported by the Venetian senator Pierantonio Zanettin (FI). The woman, arrested for possession of a small quantity of drugs, however, according to local sources, appears not to be close to returning to her residence in Veneto.
Although she always declared herself innocent, the Arab government did not grant her any reduction in her sentence and she was released as expected after six months of detention. Furthermore, the girl will no longer be able to return to Saudi Arabia because she has been expelled from the country.
De Rosa, who was living in Jeddah at the time as an employee of the Avion Express company, had asked several times for a pardon which had never been granted. According to the Jeddah Court, the police found De Rosa with a joint in his hand, but the young woman always defended herself by saying that it was not hers and that she had not used it, so much so that during the first hearing a couple of her peers had assumed the responsibility of being the holders of the drugs (hashish), but this was not enough to exonerate De Rosa.