A UK-based teen who was arrested in Dubai over having sex with a 17-year-old girl, has been freed.

Marcus Fakana began his one-year jail sentence in December following a vacation last summer, according to BBC News. 

Fakana, now 19, was handed down the punishment after having a consensual relationship with a British girl while on vacation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The legal age of consent in the nation is 18.

The girl's mother went to the UAE authorities after seeing texts between Fakana and her daughter. Following his arrest and subsequent prison stay, Fakana was recently granted a royal pardon by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, according to the advocacy organization Detained in Dubai, as reported by the BBC.

The group's rep, Radha Stirling, who connected with Fakana's family, told BBC Newsbeat: "He's overwhelmed. It's always very difficult when someone's suddenly released after six months. For a young man - a boy, really, as I would see him... It's just unfathomable for most people how long it would take to recover from such a situation.

Stirling continued to the outlet: "He was absolutely very nervous, of course, and his whole family too. But I mean, once you've been told 'buy that plane ticket', there's obviously a sense of relief at that point. His family is just over the moon to have him back early."

Fakana was with his parents in the UAE beginning in late August when a "holiday romance blossomed" with another Londoner, who has now turned 18, according to the advocacy organization.

Stirling added: "I think the law saying that an 18-year-old can't engage in relations with someone who's just a few weeks younger than him is quite strict and perhaps shouldn't be applied to tourists. Furthermore, Marcus didn't know that she was under 18; they were in the same school year and it seems fair and reasonable that he assumed her to be 18 as well. So I think again under those circumstances he shouldn't have been prosecuted."