A top international legal expert has warned against Brits travelling to Dubai. A number of UK residents have spent the festive season in utterly “dire” situations, locked up in United Arab Emirates prisons despite there being zero evidence of their wrongdoing.
Now the horrific cases have prompted Radha Stirling, the CEO of Detained in Dubai which is a leading international law firm taking cases involving tourists in the UAE, to strike the country off their travel list altogether.
One such case is that of Londoner Albert Douglas, 60, who narrowly escaped with his life after being strangled with a telephone cord inside the al-Barsha prison after he was jailed over a £2.5million fine issued against his son’s business, which he says he had no role in.
During his time behind bars he has been beaten repeatedly, denied his heart medication, been humiliated and tortured and on one occasion guards forced him to drink from a toilet.
Ms Stirling said: “There’s a lot of people out there who just say, ‘Oh no, it’s not a problem, you just have to follow the law.’ But that’s not the case.
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“Most of these people locked up, for example those targeted in the rental car scam, they have all been following the law,” she told The Mirror.
In recent months a rental car scam has emerged in the country where vehicle hire companies have been ripping off tourists – but if Brits complain on social media they can be jailed for defaming the business.
Another Scottish man called Jamie Harron was jailed for three months after accidentally brushing past someone in a bar according to the legal expert.
She said: “It’s hard for me to say that going to Dubai is risk free.”
She added that the British Government “isn’t going to step in and help you” and if you “start talking to the media, they threaten you, they beat you.”
Ms Stirling claimed that the lack of Government help is due to the close relationships consular officials have with their Emirati counterparts and says that they “don’t want to offend their friends”.
She added: “It’s really dire.” Express.co.uk has approached the Foreign Office for comment.