DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- An Emirati police officer has won an appeal against his prison sentence for posting an online video that showed him holding Barcelona star Lionel Messi's passport.
Abu Dhabi's state-run The National newspaper reported on Wednesday that Dubai's Court of Appeal had overturned the officer's one-month prison term.
The paper quoted the officer's lawyer, Abdul Moniem bin Suwaidan, as saying on Tuesday that the accused had the permission of Messi's business manager to make the video at a private wing of Dubai International Airport on Dec. 27.
The officer, identified by the initials JM, posted the video to the mobile phone app Snapchat with the caption: "Shall I burn the passport or just put it back!"
Messi is a global ambassador for the coming 2020 World Expo, or world's fair, in Dubai.