Ryan Cornelius hadn’t even intended to set foot outside Dubai airport. When he boarded a flight from Karachi on May 21st 2008, he planned only on changing planes to travel on to his home in Bahrain. At the last moment, the 54-year-old British businessman decided to stop over in Dubai to meet his business partner. Three plain-clothes policemen arrested Cornelius as he left the airport. Even in his shock he was struck by how young they were. The police seized his phone and locked him in a windowless room. Customs officers searched him, saying that they believed he was carrying drugs. They found nothing. At first he thought the authorities had simply made a mistake. Cornelius became more alarmed later that day when he was taken in an unmarked car, hands bound with zip ties, to Dubai’s police headquarters. No one spoke to him en-route. As he entered the building, a compact structure with a façade of dark glass squatting between two steel pillars, a hood was placed over his head. After an hour it was taken off, and officers said he’d soon be released. He wasn’t told why he’d been arrested. Cornelius was interrogated for hours in a padded, windowless room, without a lawyer present, then thrown into a bare cell. For ten days he was held incommunicado, with no access to his family, embassy officials or legal advisers. He didn’t even have a mattress to sleep on. He later learned that his two British business partners had been arrested around the same time. A second interrogation was conducted by two police officers. Cornelius found it hard to follow their train of questioning. They had a file with them of what looked like invoices, though they referred to them only generally. The senior officer brandished a letter from a Dubai bank and kept asking whether the invoices were faked. Eventually, after grilling him for hours, the officers told Cornelius to make a statement laying out his version of events. Around 30 minutes after he did so, an officer reappeared with a typed document in Arabic, a language that Cornelius neither speaks nor reads. The man said he could leave for Bahrain once he’d signed it. When Cornelius asked for a lawyer, he was told that there wouldn’t be one available for days — by then, the officers ominously asserted, it would be “too late”. Confused and increasingly panicked, Cornelius signed the statement (he later insisted that it bore little resemblance to the interview). Instead of being released, he was returned to his bare cell. Dubai lacks the oil wealth of its neighbours. To compensate, it turned itself into a commercial hub Dubai is the glitziest of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE). It’s a tourist playground of beaches, turquoise seas and imposing glass towers that gleam in the year-round sun. Entrepreneurs are attracted to Dubai, too, seeing it as a pristine, modern, rule-bound entrepot in which to invest. But foreigners doing business in Dubai are often unaware that local politicians and businessmen — elite figures are often both — may use the courts to pursue vendettas, settle scores or raid assets they covet. Even the smallest debt can lead to years in jail. Cornelius is just one of thousands of expats who are either imprisoned in Dubai after falling foul of the emirate’s draconian legal system and the powerful people who manipulate it, or who are theoretically free but unable to leave. The crime he was charged with carried a sentence of three years in the UAE. Yet, 13 years on, he remains locked up in a high-security prison in Dubai (one of his business partners is there too). He is now 67 and his sentence has been extended twice. His parents have died since he went to jail and he missed both their funerals. He is due to be freed when he is 85. Born in South Africa in 1954, Cornelius was the son of a Welsh father and a mother of Australian heritage. He grew up in what was then Northern Rhodesia (it became Zambia in 1964), where his father’s company provided steel equipment to copper mines. Cornelius automatically received British citizenship through his father. His parents weren’t typical colonialists. His mother befriended Kenneth Kaunda, the young firebrand who went on to become the first president of Zambia (he regularly sought her advice over tea at the state house). Cornelius grew up in a family of rugby fanatics, and his childhood overseas made him both resourceful and competitive. While studying in Britain in his early 20s, he played for Saracens, a north London rugby club. To this day, his accent remains unmistakably southern African. Cornelius followed his father into engineering and, in 1981 he established a company called Aject, which specialised in precision tunnelling. The business environment in the Middle East was tricky, but Cornelius persisted and grew rich on the back of the oil and construction boom of the 1980s. He sold Aject in 1996. Though he was only in his early 40s, Cornelius was wealthy enough to retire. But the quiet life didn’t interest him. According to Chris Pagett, his brother-in-law, he “was still driven by the same colonial-boy compulsion to show these posh-boy poms that you can make it into the big league”. Along with some business partners, Cornelius embarked on three new projects, each larger than any that he’d previously attempted: the construction of a marina in Bahrain; a proposal to dismantle a Canadian oil refinery and reassemble it in Pakistan; and the development of a large site in Dubai, branded “The Plantation”, building a 200-room hotel and 110 luxury villas. This last was potentially the most lucrative. Plans for the Plantation’s equestrian facilities were luxurious even by the standards of a region where the ruling elite has a passion for horses. They included an eventing course, an indoor show-jumping arena, two polo fields and a member’s club with bars and restaurants. It was, Cornelius once quipped, “the equivalent of having Ascot racecourse plonked in Fulham”. In 2004, the business partners secured a 99-year lease to develop 450 acres of land. At the time, UAE was eager for foreign investors to construct the grandiose property developments that would put Dubai on the map. The property market was running hot: new blocks of luxury flats often found purchasers within hours of going on the market. Cash deals were common and few sellers spent much time scrutinising a buyer’s source of funds. Even so, entrepreneurs found it hard to raise enough for big projects like the Plantation unless they were backed by a major corporate developer. Some specialist lenders, however, made money by taking on riskier borrowers. Cornelius turned to one such firm, CCH, which provided capital at a higher rate of interest than a typical bank loan. He hoped that this would help get the project off the ground and convince a mainstream bank to give him and his partners cheaper longer-term financing. CCH was backed by $500m in credit from DIB. The chairmen of the two companies were reportedly on good terms — which was useful because Mohammed Kharbash, who headed DIB, was also the finance minister of the UAE. This gave the project an influential patron, a big advantage when doing business in the Middle East. Cornelius was “fully implicated” in the creation of fabricated invoices to perpetrate a fraud By 2007 huge mounds of sand had been excavated at the Plantation site, and much of the ground levelled. The service roads and stables were complete, and the polo fields had been laid. Around 30 plots had already been sold. DIB insisted that Cornelius put up his personal assets, including his family homes, as collateral. Cornelius wasn’t happy about being a personal guarantor, but he believed that his investments were comfortably worth more than the loan. The Plantation alone had recently been valued at around $1bn. In total, Cornelius and his partners provided collateral which they estimated was worth $1.6bn, more than three times the amount that DIB had lent them. They reckoned that the new deal would allow them to keep developing the Plantation. Cornelius and his business partners actually outpaced their repayment schedule to DIB (helped, in part, by a further loan from CCH). Their first two payments of $25m were on time, and on top of that they repaid an additional $10m. It was shortly after they’d made the second of those payments, in May 2008, that Cornelius was arrested at Dubai airport. Dubai’s prisons are considerably less luxurious than its hotels. Central prison, where Cornelius is incarcerated, can hold around 4,000 inmates. Each steel-barred cell, which is roughly the size of a shipping container, is supposed to house six inmates, but sometimes two or three more are crammed in and they have to sleep on the floor. Prisoners are issued with thin, rubber mattresses. There is no bed linen, only heavy woollen blankets. Some prisoners don’t even have pillows and instead use empty plastic water bottles taped together. The temperature in the cells is kept low. The air conditioning runs noisily and ceaselessly; strip lights are left on 24 hours a day. Hanging up anything to dim the brightness is treated as a punishable offence: it might obscure the cameras that monitor the prisoners. Taps drip. One former prisoner wrote that the “constantly running toilets are inhumane and relentless brutal forms of mental torture”. There is no toilet paper, so prisoners have to use a hose. Occasionally, they are allowed to exercise for 45 minutes in a small, concrete yard. In Dubai, inmates have to buy everything, including soap and detergent for cleaning the cells, as well as newspapers and phone calls. They pay using cards issued to them when they first enter the prison, which can be loaded with spending money if the prisoner is lucky enough to have relatives or friends who can afford to top them up. Food is one of the biggest expenditures. The menu is bleak for prisoners who can’t afford to buy their own: black tea and a bowl of daal for breakfast; for lunch or dinner, a chicken drumstick and a dollop of rice in yellow gravy which has the consistency of gruel; occasionally a couple of tinned frankfurters with stewed onions. Long-term inmates report that over the past ten years the quality of the meals has steadily declined. They used to receive a couple of pieces of fruit at lunchtime and fish once a week. These have now been cut. A small range of food items can be bought from outside the prison, by placing an order through the police kitchen. Cornelius buys a hamburger twice a week and pizza on Thursdays. He also orders in bran flakes, milk, tea, coffee and biscuits. And he pays for bottled water so he doesn’t have to drink the water from the fountain at the end of the corridor, which is desalinated and tastes metallic. Martin Lonergan, who spent nine months in the cell next to Cornelius’s in 2019–20 after getting caught up in a separate business dispute, carried out an informal survey among the prisoners. He reckons inmates lucky enough to have money on their cards spend an average of around 150 dirhams a week, or $40. (As a vegan, he spent 500 dirhams.) “Add in all the other items that have to be bought, multiply it by thousands of prisoners, and Dubai’s prison system starts to look like quite a money-making exercise.” Cornelius undoubtedly committed fraud. The definition of the crime covers a wide spectrum of wrongdoing: at one end it includes schemes to steal billions of dollars, at the other are lesser forms of deceit that result in no personal gain, such as the failure to disclose information. Cornelius has always maintained that he never had any intention of stealing from DIB. He did, however, admit that he used money for riskier endeavours than those for which it was lent. The bank provided credit for short-term needs, but it was instead used to fund unauthorised longer-term projects such as the Pakistan refinery and investments relating to the Plantation. To pull this off, Cornelius’s business forged invoices for items such as furniture and building materials to match the investment capital being funnelled to the Plantation. A later civil case, brought by DIB in Britain, concluded that Cornelius was “fully implicated” in the creation of fabricated invoices to perpetrate a fraud. He was also accused of bribery. The judge accepted the bank’s claim that $342m of the $500m lent by DIB had been used for unauthorised projects. Cornelius and his partners have always said that they intended to repay the loans with the proceeds of sales in the Plantation. A person close to Cornelius says he accepts that he “made mistakes”, but that he’d been assured by CCH that he could borrow money to invest if he submitted “certain invoices in a certain way”. Though Cornelius never dealt directly with DIB, he has said he was led to understand that the bank was “supportive” of this chicanery. Dubai attracts Westerners looking to build businesses in a place with a frontier mentality All the parties knew about the irregularities when they agreed to restructure the loan in 2007. According to an international banker who worked in the Middle East at the time, there was plenty of money washing around and the economy of the UAE was booming: “As long as this continued, no one seemed overly worried about what the borrower did with the money, as long as he could be trusted. It’s how business was done back then.” Despite the misuse of the money they lent, DIB continued doing business with Cornelius and his partners. The origins of the fraud charges against Cornelius are unclear. The complaint may have come from DIB itself, according to official documents that later came to light, though the bank has always denied this, insisting that Dubai’s police force first raised the concern. According to a legal statement made by Cornelius, during one interrogation a police officer “kept on asking me how much I could repay the bank immediately”. This line of inquiry surprised Cornelius, because the agreement he and his associates signed with DIB contained a specific clause whereby the bank waived its right to bring any claims against the other parties, as long as they kept to the repayment schedule. But the bank was now under new management. Kharbash, the chairman who had overseen the deal, owed his job to Dubai’s emir, Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum. When Maktoum died in 2006, he was succeeded by his brother, Mohammed, and a changing of the guard followed. Many senior members of staff were pushed out, including Kharbash. He left DIB in early 2008, a few months before Cornelius’s arrest. The new chairman of DIB was Mohammed al-Shaibani — no ordinary financier but one of the new emir’s closest lieutenants. He had previously overseen the ruling family’s commercial interests in Britain. His appointment at DIB was the latest stage in a rise that has seen him become arguably the most powerful person in Dubai outside the royal family. He is now director-general of the Ruler’s Court, which controls the executive arm of government. As Shaibani’s political star has waxed, his business interests have also grown. He is head of Nakheel, one of Dubai’s largest property developers, as well as the Investment Corporation of Dubai, a $300bn sovereign-wealth fund which holds many of the emirate’s highest-profile assets. He is also a director of Dubai World, a state-owned investment company, and of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, one of the world’s largest aircraft-leasing companies. Shaibani’s past calls into question Dubai’s claim to be run by the rule of law. He was involved in two of the most notorious episodes in Dubai’s recent history: the kidnappings of the emir’s daughters, Shamsa and Latifa. In August 2000, Shamsa was abducted from the streets of Cambridge, England, not far from the sheikh’s estate in Newmarket. She was drugged and taken to Dubai against her will. During a dispute between the ruler of Dubai and his estranged wife, the English High Court determined in December 2019 that Shaibani was “closely involved” in the “operation to remove” her and, indeed, that he was present when she was seized. She hasn’t been seen in public since. Latifa, Shamsa’s younger sister, was 32 when she attempted to flee Dubai in a yacht in 2018. The boat was intercepted off the coast of Goa by Indian special forces, with their UAE counterparts in tow. Shaibani’s name crops up repeatedly in messages and audio recordings that Latifa provided to the Free Latifa Campaign. She claims Shaibani was involved in her kidnapping and threatened to have her certified as insane and detained indefinitely. He forced her, she said, to make false statements to British courts and to the UN, which was investigating her case, denying that she was being held against her will. When Shaibani was installed as DIB chairman, he acted decisively. It was widely believed that Kharbash, the former chairman, had been lining his own pockets. Shaibani’s remit was “to clean the stables”, says a lawyer who worked on cases involving the bank. Kharbash was charged with embezzlement in 2009. The outcome of the case is unclear. He died in 2016. British newspapers call Dubai “the new Costa del Sol” Shaibani wanted not merely to remove Kharbash, but to crush those who had profited from their relationships with him, according to several British lawyers who have examined Cornelius’s case, as well as Lord Clement-Jones, a Liberal Democrat peer who has campaigned for Cornelius’s release. In one witness statement Cornelius said he believed that DIB “took various calculated steps” to prevent him from fulfilling the restructuring agreement. These were “illegal acts of manifest bad faith” committed by the bank “in order to get its hands” on the Plantation. After Cornelius was locked up in mid-2008, DIB either seized or forced him and his partners to sell the assets that they’d pledged as collateral, even though the bank now referred in court to the restructuring agreement as a corrupt document. Detained without bail, Cornelius watched his assets disappear. In March 2010, almost two years after his arrest, Cornelius was tried on charges of fraud and money-laundering. Things did not go to plan for his accusers. The money-laundering charge was dropped. In August the case took a dramatic turn, when the judge recused himself, apparently unwilling to continue the trial on the basis of the evidence presented. Nevertheless, Cornelius remained in jail. By October 2010 he had already served more time than the sentence he would have received had he been convicted (the maximum sentence for fraud in Dubai is three years, but there is a 25% reduction for good behaviour). That month, Cornelius was put on trial again, before a new judge, and facing a fresh charge sheet. This time, he, his ex-partners and managers at DIB were accused of colluding to defraud and steal from a governmental body. This required some sleight of hand, since the bank hadn’t previously been regarded as a state entity. Though the state held 28% of its shares, both government and bank officials had long portrayed DIB as a vibrant market-oriented institution. Nevertheless, prosecutors alleged that the unpaid balance of the loan was a fraud on the state. None of this helped Cornelius. In Dubai, the maximum sentence for defrauding the state is ten years. The new judge convicted Cornelius and his co-defendants in 2012, sentencing them to the full ten-year term. The trial was in Arabic so Cornelius couldn’t understand it. His lawyer didn’t speak English. He was told through an interpreter that the judge insisted that Cornelius and his partners still owed DIB around $500m from the original fraud, and imposed an additional fine of $500m. DIB tenaciously pursued this debt in Britain and Bahrain, where Cornelius owned other assets. The bank convinced an English court to hand over all three of Cornelius’s properties in London — flats in Pimlico and Tower Bridge, and a house in Maida Vale — which had a combined value of $7m. Cornelius’s defence was hamstrung when the authorities in Dubai refused to let him testify via video link; he was allowed only to submit written statements. The ruling left his wife Heather and their three children without a home. When they appealed to hold on to one of the flats on humanitarian grounds, DIB ‘s lawyers made short work of them. By May 2016, Cornelius had served the full ten years less the standard 25% reduction for good behaviour, and qualified for possible release. Instead he was kept behind bars with no official explanation for his ongoing imprisonment. He stayed incarcerated for another two years. At that point Cornelius and his business partner were taken without notice or legal representation to a judge’s office, where a lawyer for DIB requested an additional 20 years in jail, under the right available to creditors in Dubai to keep a debtor imprisoned for failing to repay the money owed. The judge quickly acceded. Cornelius later stated that the judge declared that “it was a matter between us and the bank, and that the courts no longer played a part”. In effect, “ DIB had become our jailer.” The new sentence was imposed in accordance with Dubai’s Law 37, which was modelled on Britain’s Proceeds of Crime Act, which aims to counter money laundering. Yet Dubai passed this law only two years after Cornelius’s alleged fraud. Retroactivity is proscribed by international law and, says Lord Clement-Jones, “offends every basic principle of the rule of law”. It is also specifically prohibited by the UAE ‘s own constitution. Cornelius tried to appeal against this new 20-year sentence, but was stonewalled by the prison authorities. He applied five times to appoint a lawyer to file the appeal on his behalf. Each time the prison rejected his request: officials insisted that the law didn’t allow anyone serving a sentence such as his to issue a power of attorney. With no alternative, Cornelius decided to represent himself and managed to lodge an appeal. But on the day scheduled for the hearing, he was told that his name wasn’t on the passenger manifest for the prison bus. In May 2018 a judge dismissed the appeal because Cornelius had missed the hearing, and denied him permission to lodge another one. It still isn’t clear why Cornelius has been harried so tenaciously for his debt and held in prison indefinitely. Lord Clement-Jones said in the House of Lords that he believes this to be a consequence of Shaibani’s “personal determination”. He alleged that Shaibani had “intervened personally” with the authorities in Bahrain to reverse the dismissal of DIB’s claim against Cornelius. The Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution had dismissed as “groundless” the bank’s claim that Cornelius and his partners still owed it money. The chamber’s judgments are supposed to be final. Four months later, however, this one was overturned. (Shaibani’s representatives were offered the opportunity to comment by 1843 magazine but did not respond.) Cornelius’s family and supporters believe that Shaibani wanted to wrest back control of the Plantation, a prized jewel of Dubai’s real estate, and that he is trying to prevent Cornelius from seeking recompense through the courts if he ever leaves prison. His relatives reckon that these two objectives have led DIB into legal contortions. Perhaps as a way to justify hounding Cornelius, the bank told courts in Dubai and Britain that the Plantation, valued at around $1bn at the time of the arrest, is “essentially worthless and unsaleable”. At different times DIB has provided various arguments as to why this is the case: either because of the property crash of 2008, or because the development belonged not to the bank but to the state, since it was classified as the proceeds of crime. Cornelius was not once allowed to address the judge during the more than 100 court sessions he attended DIB did not reply on the record to a detailed set of questions regarding Cornelius’s story. But Hugh Lyons of Baker McKenzie, the law firm representing DIB in the civil cases against Cornelius, told 1843 magazine that Cornelius is a fraudster, whose conviction has been upheld by both Dubai’s court of appeal and court of cassation, the highest judicial body in the emirate. He also pointed out that courts in Britain and Bahrain ordered Cornelius to pay considerable sums of money, which he has so far failed to deliver. He is, he says, “not aware of any miscarriage of justice”. Prisoners report that they rarely see the jailers. Every night at 9pm cells are locked and the phone line to the guards is switched off. If an inmate has a problem, there’s no way to get assistance. Sometimes prisoners can be heard screaming for help. Cornelius has told his family he finds it “scary” to be so isolated. The block used to have magnetic fire doors that opened automatically if the fire alarm went off. Several years ago this system was disconnected. These days the doors are padlocked. Medical care is almost non-existent: a single doctor covers all the inmates. Under the rota system prisoners may be given an appointment six months down the line. Racial discrimination is evident, too. Pakistani inmates are kept waiting longer than white ones, and black inmates longer still. Since his imprisonment, Cornelius has suffered from high blood pressure and raised cholesterol. In late 2019 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis after a prisoner in an adjacent cell collapsed with the disease. Despite regular pleas, he waited 18 months to receive treatment and medication. Mercifully, his tuberculosis is latent. He was sent to a government hospital more than once during that period, but each time was returned to prison without being examined, either because doctors claimed not to know who he was or because the paperwork wasn’t in order. The pandemic put an end to prisoners’ brief allowance of outdoor recreation. For months, Cornelius was kept indoors all day. His only exercise was an occasional jog up and down the corridor that runs alongside the cells. Previously he’d helped organise games of touch rugby. He told his family that it was the only thing he had to look forward to each week. Cornelius and other inmates have been double-jabbed with the Sinopharm vaccine. That didn’t stop covid from running rampant through the overcrowded prison. His block is reportedly being used as a dumping ground for anyone who might be infected. In the summer, Cornelius came down with covid symptoms. Medical staff were absent, and prisoners couldn’t even get paracetamol. A prisoner in the cell next to Cornelius died of coronavirus and his body lay there for eight hours before being removed in a plastic bag. Cornelius worries that catching covid again might trigger his tuberculosis to become active. Doing business in autocracies is fraught with peril. Without an independent legal system, judges arbitrating commercial disputes can feel under pressure from individuals who have political clout. Only the most naive investor would operate in China or Russia without considering the risk of expropriation at the hands of the government or well-connected rivals. Dubai is supposed to be different: a business-friendly oasis with a Western outlook in a region fraught with danger. Dubai lacks the oil wealth of its neighbours. To compensate, it has turned itself into a commercial hub where service industries such as finance, property and tourism flourish. It promotes itself as a low-tax, free-trading haven to foreign investors. In early 2020, the UAE announced that foreign doctors, scientists and inventors would, for the first time, be able to apply for citizenship. It attracts Westerners looking to build businesses in a place with a frontier mentality, as well as “appealing to anyone who’d made it from Karachi, Beirut or wherever and wanted somewhere safer, more middle class”, as one banker puts it. Hotels with large conference centres have helped to turn the emirate into the Middle East’s undisputed hub for corporate events. It markets itself as a luxury destination for suits and shoppers alike. And it has shrewdly encouraged social-media influencers to move there — and post pictures of their glamorous lifestyles — to draw younger visitors, too. By and large, Western governments consider Dubai to be a reliable partner and safe place to operate. The latest guidance from Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office ( FCO) on business risks in the UAE states that its “society is multicultural, and characterised by greater tolerance and openness than many other countries in the region”. Yet the emirate has long been a haven for dirty money and shady middlemen. Regulators mostly turned a blind eye to such activity in the heady years before the financial crisis. But the events of 2008–09 left Dubai’s debt exposed and the emirate came close to defaulting — it was saved from this fate only by a bail-out from Abu Dhabi, another emirate. This near-death experience forced Dubai to make a show of cleaning house, especially as the government came under increasing pressure from other countries and global regulators. “For a foreigner, the only way to get acquitted is to have enough influence to win a pardon” Nonetheless Dubai remains popular with kleptocrats, arms-smugglers, sanctions-busters and money-launderers. Fugitives, fraudsters and disgraced public figures flock there (British newspapers call Dubai “the new Costa del Sol”, a reference to the stretch of southern Spain where foreign criminals used to lie low). Crime rings and crypto scammers operate within its borders. Dubai’s half-heartedness in combating illicit finance is “a feature, not a bug” of its economy, according to a report last year by the Carnegie Endowment, a think-tank. This offers it a competitive advantage over stricter jurisdictions. But powerful people in Dubai can seize assets under the guise of combating corruption, just as Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman did in Saudi Arabia in 2017 when he arrested numerous royals and businessmen, and drained their bank accounts. The UAE’s legal system is based on civil-law principles and sharia law. Each emirate has its own court, with a supreme court in Abu Dhabi. Dubai is one of only two emirates that do not take part in the UAE ‘s federal court structure. Instead it touts its modern judicial system. The Dubai International Financial Centre, a special economic zone that contains more than 2,000 banks and companies, has its own courts, which operate according to common-law principles and hear cases in English. Applications to this special economic zone are closely scrutinised; those from financial and technology firms are most likely to be successful. But Cornelius’s businesses, like most companies in Dubai, were registered outside this zone and instead fell under the jurisdiction of the national courts, which apply the national law. In these courts, capital trials can begin and end in a day. It is rare for prosecutors to lose. Indeed, the prosecuting lawyer often sits next to the judge on the bench. Foreigners on trial have observed discussions between prosecutor and judge in which the former appeared to be giving instructions to the latter. Defendants are often blocked from giving evidence. Cornelius has not once been allowed to address the judge during the more than 100 court sessions he attended in over ten years of hearings and appeals since his arrest. He often struggled to understand what was going on because of poor translation. The system is run on patronage. “For a foreigner, the only way to get acquitted is to have enough influence to win a pardon,” said one foreign lawyer. As Cornelius has discovered to his cost, the law can be particularly cruel in disputes over money. In most Western countries, debt is considered a civil matter. Charles Dickens’s father was sent to a debtors’ prison and Dickens’s depictions of these prisons’ horrific conditions in his novels bolstered a campaign that led to their eventual abolition in Britain in 1869. The UAE, by contrast, still treats debt as a crime. Dubai’s courts mete out eye-watering sentences for property crimes. Late payment, even a single bounced cheque, can land you in jail for up to three years. This helps unscrupulous claimants to “exploit the criminal system in matters relating to debt recovery”, says Rhys Davies, a barrister working on Cornelius’s case. A prison sentence does not clear the debt. If the debtor cannot repay the money when the initial sentence ends, the creditor can ask the court to keep the person incarcerated indefinitely, until the debt is settled. Debtors can be locked in a Catch-22 situation: if they can’t leave prison, how can they ever earn money to pay off the debt? Some Indian labourers have been languishing in jail in the UAE for over a decade with debts as small as $1,000. Companies, banks, public figures and even private individuals work the system to become long-term jailers. A mere accusation can be all that the authorities require to arrest someone and bar them from leaving the country, even in the absence of evidence. Radha Stirling of Detained in Dubai, a group that provides assistance to foreigners ensnared by the emirate’s legal system, has many clients who are, or have been, “debt hostages”. Even those who aren’t locked up may find their freedom limited. The accused typically loses their job and the local bank will freeze their account. “That can lead to previously written cheques bouncing, compounding their problems,” says Stirling. “They can’t get another job to pay off the debt as no one with a police case against them is entitled to a work visa. And a travel ban ensures they can never leave Dubai until the impossible debt is paid.” Relatives of debtors aren’t safe either. Albert Douglas has been in prison in Dubai for two years since cheques issued by his son’s flooring business bounced: his son had left Dubai, so the creditors went after Douglas because he was a signatory on the company’s accounts. Fully aware of the emirate’s ruthless treatment of debtors, Douglas tried to escape to Oman. He was caught climbing a border fence. Now, at 60 years old, he fears he will die in prison. A report earlier this year, written by Sir David Calvert-Smith, former director of public prosecutions in Britain, flagged UAE’s abuse of red notices and its “undue influence” over Interpol. In late November, Major-general Ahmed Naser al-Raisi, inspector-general of the Emirati interior ministry, was elected as the organisation’s next president. Foreigners who had previously been locked up in Dubai campaigned to stop him getting the job, arguing that he had overseen arbitrary arrests and torture in his previous role. The UAE ‘s misuse of red notices ranges from petty extortion to attacks “for political gain against those seen as a threat to the regime”, according to Calvert-Smith’s report. One British woman was surrounded at a restaurant in Rome and taken into custody over an alleged credit-card debt of a few thousand dollars. Some Indian labourers have been in jail in the UAE for over a decade with debts as small as $1,000 Stirling of Detained in Dubai says that “Dubai’s financial firms have used Interpol as their own personal debt collectors.” She reckons that sometimes the alleged debts don’t even exist. “The UAE has essentially perfected the debt shakedown,” she says. “In some cases they get people who owe nothing listed to extort from them. When the target is arrested overseas, the sheikh, bank or whoever else is behind the case will say ‘give me assets or money to drop it, or I’ll make more accusations’.” The conditions in which Cornelius has been kept over the years have improved in certain small respects. As a long-serving inmate, he is entitled to one of the coveted lower bunks (he happens to share his cell with one of the DIB bankers who ran his account). Most prisoners aren’t allowed anything in their cells beyond their mattress and blanket — even family photos are prohibited. Cornelius has been given a couple of round tubs to hold books and case files, a few items of clothing, cutlery, crockery and a small radio that can pick up local stations. He listens to the business news on Dubai Eye and another station that plays songs from the Eighties and Nineties. “The playlist is limited. He jokes that he can usually predict which song is coming next,” says Pagett, his brother-in-law. A combination of covid and penury mean that no family member has visited Cornelius since February 2019. Between covid lockdowns, Cornelius was offered a rare Skype call with his wife, Heather: when he returned to his cell, he curled up on his mattress and wept for several hours. Heather’s voice cracks when she speaks about her conversations with her husband; she seems constantly to be on the verge of tears. She used to find the visits incredibly stressful, she says, because the authorities would sometimes make excuses at the last minute and postpone the meeting. Now she can’t even afford to make the trip from Britain. Heather worries that her daughter, who was a young adult when Cornelius was arrested, has “internalised” her father’s absence more than their two sons, who were 17 and six. “[The boys] find it easier to share the emotional difficulties of dealing with it.” The couple speak by phone most days. “I can hear when he’s close to giving up, but he’s always trying to protect me from having to worry about him. He focuses on me and the kids. He puts in a huge effort. In the early days we would speak about the case, about lawyers. Not any more.” She gets extremely anxious if he doesn’t call at the allotted time, worrying that he may have collapsed during the night, when he can’t reach the guards. “Every morning I wake up and think ‘Oh God he’s still in jail. How are we going to keep going?’ But I’ll cling onto any hope. It’s how I’ve survived the past 13 years. Ryan still has hope too, I know it, despite everything.” The British government has offered Cornelius minimal assistance since he was arrested and imprisoned. After numerous pleas by the family, a consular assistant — a Dubai national — eventually helped him to see a doctor for his tuberculosis. But the family reports that the assistant is often hard to reach: calls go straight to voicemail and her mailbox is sometimes full. “Typically, British consular staff just provide people with a list of local lawyers, visit inmates with inconsistent frequency and help relay communication with their families,” says Stirling. The diplomatic service has shown little interest in the case. After many requests, an official from the Foreign Office visited him two years ago, and Cornelius talked him through documents relating to Dubai’s unlawful retrospective use of Law 37 to keep him in prison. The official said he would look into it, but the family has heard nothing since. “Every morning I wake up and think ‘Oh God he’s still in jail. How are we going to keep going?’” British ministers have refused to condemn Cornelius’s treatment publicly, or ask for clemency. Government ministers do “very little” in such cases, says Davies, the barrister. He describes a “comedic process” in case after case, where “the Foreign Office says, ‘Abide by the local legal processes and we’ll deal with it later.’ But then after you’ve been found guilty they say, ‘Ah, but you’re a convicted criminal.’ “ Lord Clement-Jones reckons that the Foreign Office will support a plea for a pardon only if a local lawyer files a claim for miscarriage of justice. In a place like Dubai, such an act would be “career suicide, and possibly worse”. He called the government’s response “spineless”. The Foreign Office did not respond to a request for comment. Other countries take firmer action. America, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and Nigeria have all done far more to help citizens with legal troubles in Dubai. Lonergan, the former prisoner, says Irish diplomats played a crucial role in ensuring he was released after nine months: his contact at the Irish embassy gave him her mobile number and was available round the clock. The Irish government kept up pressure on officials in Dubai until he was freed. Why would Britain turn a blind eye to such legal abuses? The answer may partly lie in its economic and security ties to the UAE. The country is Britain’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and its 12th-largest export market globally. It is also an important security partner in a hostile region — the two countries share much intelligence. Yet America and France enjoy similar links with the UAE and still help their citizens far more extensively when they encounter legal difficulties there. Britain’s departure from the EU has done little to change matters. The government had said it would toughen its stance on human-rights abuses abroad. Instead, it has sought to strengthen commercial and military relationships with a host of non- EU partners in order to show that it can thrive outside the bloc. Dubai’s elite is also deeply enmeshed within Britain’s economy and society. Sheikh Maktoum was once a guest in the Queen’s carriage at Royal Ascot. An analysis by the Guardian in April concluded that the ruler of Dubai is one of Britain’s biggest landowners, with more than 40,000 hectares (the exact scale is hard to determine because some properties linked to him are held by offshore companies with opaque ownership). Maktoum’s property empire includes mansions in Belgravia, Kensington and Knightsbridge, a country house in Surrey and an estate in the Scottish Highlands. His stables at Newmarket are part of Godolphin, the Maktoum family’s global thoroughbred horse-racing business, which also has operations in Dubai and Australia. Godolphin’s British arm runs the country’s largest flat-racing stable and has strong links to the Jockey Club, which owns some of Britain’s best-known racecourses, including Epsom Downs and Cheltenham. The British government could use these ties as leverage. Britain is one of a number of countries that have added Magnitsky laws to their arsenal of sanctions in recent years. Named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in a Russian prison after attempting to expose tax fraud by public officials, these laws empower governments to impose travel bans and freeze assets belonging to people responsible for severe human-rights violations. Cornelius’s barristers will soon submit requests to the British government, as well as America, Canada and EU countries, to impose Magnitsky sanctions on Shaibani and the two judges who imprisoned Cornelius. In light of the British government’s indifference, however, it’s hard to imagine it taking action against a powerful figure from a country with which Britain seeks to maintain close ties. The very least Britain should do, says Stirling, is warn people more forcefully about the dangers of doing business in Dubai. The Foreign Office still advises that the UAE is safe so long as you respect the laws and culture, she says. “It does not warn citizens that the legal system there is systemically rigged against foreigners, that there is no evidentiary standard for prosecution, no due process, no respect for human rights.” Cornelius’s best hope is embarrassing the Dubai government into freeing him. “The UAE is not like Russia. It is very PR-conscious. It really hates this sort of publicity,” says one lawyer involved. Dubai is particularly sensitive to criticism during the delayed Expo 2020, which began on October 1st and runs until March 2022. This is the first world fair exhibiting innovations since the one held in Milan in 2015. The emirate’s government sees it as a golden opportunity to promote Dubai as an investment and tourism destination. (The opening week of the expo was marred by revelations of state-sponsored skulduggery: a British court ruled that agents working on behalf of Sheikh Maktoum had probably hacked the phone of his estranged wife, Princess Haya.) Cornelius’s family say he is naturally positive and has never lost hope of being freed. He is kept going by the thought that “someday someone just wants to be rid of Cornelius & Co” and will let him out. British courts have begun to look more sceptically on DIB ‘s claims in a civil case brought by Cornelius’s business partner. But Cornelius appears to have given up hope of winning the legal argument in Dubai. In 2014, a new rule in the UAE outlawed imprisoning debt defaulters over the age of 70. Cornelius will reach that landmark in April 2024. Given his protracted suffering within Dubai’s legal system, he isn’t confident of being let out even then. A pardon remains unlikely without concerted international pressure on the emirate. “Ryan was born with entrepreneurial genes, and even today doesn’t regret dreaming all that time ago that the Plantation could be a good bet,” says his wife, Heather. “But he bitterly regrets believing that Dubai was a safe place to do business.”■ Matthew Valencia is the deputy business-affairs editor of The Economist ILLUSTRATIONS: PATRICK SVENSSON Originally published at https://www.economist.com on December 15, 2021.

Strengthening alliances with the UAE and China while the UK remains preoccupied with Covid 'variants' and Xmas scandals. For two years, Covid has dominated the media and our daily lives, overwhelming police forces with the enforcement of lockdowns and mandated masks, stifling and delaying not only medical treatments for diseases like cancer, but side-lining other issues like foreign policy and human rights. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has focussed more on strengthening relationships with Middle Eastern countries for financial and enforcement reasons while failing to progress mutual concerted agreement on human rights violations against British citizens by these same allies. The Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab, MP advised Baroness Whitaker, MP in July that the United Kingdom had significant influence in the United Arab Emirates to promote the UK’s position on human rights, yet no visible progress has been made in this area. Parliamentary Debate - Should the FCDO increase travel warnings to British citizens heading to Dubai The UAE’s influence in the UK and the US has increased over the past ten years with significant investment into lobbying firms who target politicians, think tanks, policy influencers and prominent journalists. UAE influence a human rights catastrophe Over the past decade, the US swept Iran sanction violations under the rug despite the matter being raised to Secretary Clinton, and now there is serious concern over the deepening relationship between the UAE and China. British courts have ruled that Sheikha Shamsa Al Maktoum was kidnapped from British territory before the 2018 attack on a US flagged yacht in international waters and the kidnapping of Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum along with five foreign nationals. We can see an escalating insolence coming from our ‘allies’ that poses a danger to security and to individuals. Next month, there is a Coroners Court Inquest into the death of Lee Bradley Brown, a British national who was killed in police custody ten years ago. Several witnesses confirmed his death was a result of police brutality and despite repeated requests, the UAE refused to supply CCTV evidence they ‘claim’ would have exonerated them. There have been no sanctions or consequences for the Iran sanction violations and so the UAE has felt further emboldened to commit heinous acts against British citizens like Matthew Hedges and Albert Douglas, a grandfather who is currently undergoing surgery to repair his broken bones after having been beaten by prison guards. Forced confessions, unfair trials, wrongful and lengthy detentions, human rights violations and torture remain widespread in the UAE. The British courts continue to decline extradition requests for this reason and the EU Parliament voted to boycott Dubai’s expo this year over human rights concerns. The lack of response from the US and UK emboldens not only the UAE but its neighbours and allies and this is likely to have contributed to Saudi Arabia’s extrajudicial execution of Khashoggi. If we do not establish a consensus on these issues, individual and national security remains at risk. The UAE’s relationship with Israel has been strengthened and while this has positive security elements, Israeli companies were implicated in supporting the UAE to spy on and hack dissidents, journalists, activists, lawyers and royals like Princess Haya and Sheikha Latifa. Detained in Dubai, and a number of their clients in litigation, were targeted by Israeli intelligence operatives while others were targeted with the infamous Israeli spyware, Pegasus. Despite these international criminal acts, the UAE was appointed to the presidency of international crime reporting agency, INTERPOL. The UAE has remained one of the top abusers of Interpol’s databases, along with China, Russia, Qatar, Saudi, Bahrain and Venezuela. It’s absurd that the UK and US allowed for this strategic ('pay to play') appointment. United Arab Emirates ‘Hacking Mystery’ - New York Times Report Senator Ted Cruz opposed China’s Interpol presidency bid but the UAE’s appointment is just as ludicrous. Numerous British and American citizens have been unfairly detained abroad and subjected to extradition proceedings made by the UAE for the sole purpose of harassing and extorting individuals. It is undemocratic to then appoint that same abuser to Interpol’s leadership. The UK has made a number of UAE and Qatar initiated arrests which have cost the taxpayer millions of pounds only to later discover that the requests violated Interpol protocols, but the UK has remained silent over the Interpol presidency. UAE General accused of torture now head of Interpol While Covid continues to dominate the media, authoritarian regimes like China and the UAE are using the opportunity to increase their mutual cooperation to the point where Abu Dhabi ports are being bought up by the Chinese, arousing concern from the US that they are being used for counter espionage purposes and secret prisons. And on an individual basis, the unfair detention of US and UK prisoners are going ignored by the respective foreign affairs departments. Detainee says China has secret jail in Dubai, holds Uyghurs A number of MP’s have taken on this issue, seeking increased travel warnings and even sanctions against the UAE for human rights violations and a three hour parliamentary debate has taken place today, initiated by a Scottish MP after she was appalled over the lack of care and diplomatic intervention provided by the FCDO. Numerous victims of unfair detention and human rights violations in the UAE have supported the endeavour. Famous cases like that of Billy Barclay, Jamie Harron and Laleh Shahravesh have welcomed the debate and those who remain in prison like Billy Hood and Albert Douglas remain hopeful the Foreign Office will support citizens who have become victims of injustice and human rights violations. ABOUT | Radha Stirling Detained in Dubai: http://www.detainedindubai.org Radha Stirling: http:///www.radhastirling.com Due Process International: http://www.dueprocess.international Podcast: http://www.gulfinjustice.news Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6KH20nw... Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/detainedindubai Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/detainedindu... YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/detainedindubai Email: info@detainedindubai.org

Radha Stirling , Interpol expert and head human rights group Detained in Dubai , said the election was a 'near fatal blow to Interpol's credibility'. She added : 'It is outrageous that an institution originally founded to uphold justice and due pro cess has chosen as its president a man implicated in serious crimes from a country that is renowned for exploiting Interpol's role as a means to extort and intimate innocent people . 'She said the UAE had been using Interpol's ' red notices ' in effect, international wanted notices - to crack down on political opposition, using them as an instrument to ' persecute foreigners, dissidents, journalists and academics'. She accused Interpol of ' empowering authoritarian regimes around the globe ' by allowing this . A report by retired judge Sir David Calvert - Smith earlier this year also concluded that the UAE had 'hijacked' the red notices to put pressure on opponents and critics. The ex-director of public prosecutions also highlighted #UAE funding of Interpol , saying there was 'coherent evidence that the UAE is seeking to influence 'the agency'. Questioned about the general yesterday, Interpol The ex - director of public prosecutions also high lighted UAE funding of #Interpol, saying there was 'coherent evidence that the UAE is seeking to influence 'the agency'. Questioned about the general yesterday , Interpol secretary general Jurgen Stock said the agency did not get involved in politics . 'I will not stop my fight for justice'. Full Daily Mail Article Here: #Dubai #InterpolAbuse #RadhaStirling #DetainedinDubai #IPEXReform #IPEX

While the position is largely ceremonial, Al-Raisi’s election has raised serious concerns among legal experts and activists globally. Al-Raisi himself has faced allegations of “torture and barbarism”, specifically in connection to the wrongful detentions of British academic Matthew Hedges and Emirati democracy advocate Ahmed Mansour. His candidacy was opposed within the organisation, in the European Parliament, and among US politicians. Along with China, Russia, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, the UAE has been identified as a habitual abuser of the Interpol database and Red Notice system. Many view Al-Raisi’s election as a leap backwards for the organisation, likely influenced by the UAE’s significant contribution to Interpol’s funding; and the decision has further deteriorated the organisation’s reputation and legitimacy. The King of Interpol Abuse International extradition expert, Radha Stirling, founder and CEO of Due Process International, IPEX Reform and Detained in Dubai, has been the leading voice for Interpol reform; today Stirling issued a stark warning that Al-Raisi’s election sends a chilling signal to the world that Interpol has become an overt collaborator with the worst abusers of their own mechanisms: "Interpol’s election of General Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi today has dealt a severe setback to those of us who have been pushing for reforms and greater transparency in the international policing organisation, and represents an unfortunate and near-fatal blow to Interpol’s credibility. Not only is General Al-Raisi himself accused of complicity in torture and grave human rights violations, but the United Arab Emirates has established itself as one of the most prolific abusers of the Interpol system. Detained in Dubai statement on pardon of Matthew Hedges, Brit academic jailed for life for "spying" The UAE has used Interpol Red Notices essentially as an instrument for de facto expansion of their jurisdiction to persecute foreigners, most often over business disputes and fabricated charges which would be rejected by almost any court in the developed world. Over the past decade, Interpol has increasingly empowered authoritarian regimes around the globe to pursue political dissidents, journalists, and academics, as well as business people and investors; the election of Al-Raisi signals that the organisation has no intention of correcting this trajectory, but rather of accelerating in the direction of further abuse. It is outrageous that an institution originally founded to uphold justice and due process has chosen as its president a man implicated in serious crimes from a country that is renowned for exploiting Interpol’s role as a means to extort and intimidate innocent people, and a country which itself has consistently proven to have a corrupt legal system.” IPEXReform

Press Release: Senator Cruz called on to oppose General Raisi Interpol Presidency IPEX (Interpol & Extradition) Reform has called on Senator Ted Cruz to oppose both China and the UAE’s bid for presidency of international crime reporting agency Interpol. The Texas Senator opposed China’s bid for the presidency saying that their appointment could put thousands of Chinese political dissidents at risk. In a letter to Senator Cruz, the CEO of IPEX, Detained in Dubai and Due Process International, Radha Stirling, explained that the UAE and China have formed a concerning alliance that could put thousands at significant risk of arbitrary detention and human rights violations. Stirling said “the UAE's relationship with China has grown significantly to the point where the UAE has reportedly allowed "secret" prisons for those wanted by China. These prisons are extrajudicial and show a concerning alliance between the countries. The UAE's appointment to leadership within Interpol would be, I submit, Chinese influenced by proxy. As an expert witness in extradition cases and someone who has removed dozens of red notices over more than a decade, I know that: 1. The UAE is one of the biggest abusers of their Interpol membership, issuing frivolous reports against individuals for matters ranging from small credit card debts to politically motivated notices for the purpose of harassment, extortion and more; 2. Many such notices have been issued unfairly against Americans, causing great distress and resulting in lengthy and unfair detention, the loss of income, reputation, families and personal pain. 3. The US, UK and most western nations refuse to extradite to the UAE based on the 'real risk of unfair trials, discrimination, human rights violations and torture', and it is quite a mockery to appoint the UAE as the head of an organisation when they are a great abuser of their membership already, and when most countries decline extradition requests made via the Interpol system. 4. The UAE has acted belligerently and unlawfully, engaging in cybercrimes and hacking against US nationals including myself, my American clients, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, royals and politicians. 5. The British courts recently confirmed the UAE had kidnapped a woman from British soil and attacked a US yacht in international waters, kidnapping all onboard and forcing them into the UAE's jurisdiction. This attack included a US citizen. 6. The UAE is subject to multiple UN complaints for torture and human rights violations and there is an Inquest at the Coroners Court in England scheduled for January after a British citizen was subjected to police brutality in Dubai that caused his death. I urge you to oppose not only China's proposed leadership with Interpol, but the UAE's too and am happy to provide numerous examples of the UAE's abuse towards US and other citizens and their contempt for the rules of their membership with Interpol.” https://www.ipexreform.com/

Interpol and UAE both under fire for corrupt practices and human rights abuses. Interpol, extradition and UAE expert, Radha Stirling issued a statement today: “It’s astonishing that the UAE’s Major General Ahmed Naser Al Raisi has made a bid for the Presidency of Interpol, given that they are one of the most prolific abusers of their membership. It was in fact, the UAE, that introduced me to ‘Interpol Abuse’ and as I write this, I have just completed yet another red notice removal petition. Over the past decade, I have seen first hand, the consequences for victims of the Emirates’ ongoing abuse. I have seen lives ruined, families torn apart, victims locked up in devastating third world conditions, reputations damaged, life savings lost and severe PTSD. Radha Stirling on the Pressing Case for Interpol Reform “Every time Interpol deletes a red notice for my clients, they are made aware that the notice should never have been issued in the first place but there have been no consequences for the UAE. The lack of accountability has clearly emboldened the UAE to further violate their membership rules and continue to report victims to Interpol without due process. “We have seen people arrested all over the world for the most ridiculous of alleged ‘crimes’. A British airline hostess was surrounded by armed policemen at a restaurant in Rome over an alleged 5,000 euro credit card debt. Robert Urwin spent over a year in prison in Ukraine over a HSBC bounced cheque, while others have been wrongfully reported for the purpose of harassment and extortion. We saw US national Najib Khoury reported by Hilton hotel tycoon Khalaf Al Habtoor because Habtoor was ‘offended’ when Mr Khoury informed him that one of his staff was getting mixed up with drugs. Captain Hervé Jaubert was misplaced on Interpol’s database by vindictive ruler Sheikh Mohammed who reported him for kidnapping Princess Latifa, despite the whole world knowing she left voluntarily. I have removed dozens of abusive notices for clients over the past decade but the damage each notice does to individuals is severe. “It is time Interpol raised their standards. The mysterious crime reporting organisation is under the spotlight with suggestions for improvements and increased accountability. It is not acceptable that Interpol claims “sovereign immunity” in court. It is an unsustainable situation where Interpol can instantly cause someone to lose their freedom but can not be claimed against if they are negligent. Where victims can not sue Interpol, there is limited incentive to change. UAE Interpol Abuse Increased, Not Ceased - Emirates Expanding Use of Interpol as Retaliatory Tactic “Not only is the UAE a repeat abuser of its membership with Interpol, but they are also known for significant and ever increasing human rights abuses. Most courts will not even extradite to the UAE based on ‘the real risk of discrimination, unfair trials, wrongful detention, human rights violations and torture”. It is laughable that a country whose own Interpol Red Notices are not respected by allied nations should think they are in any position to lead Interpol itself. UAE bank’s Interpol Abuse raised at UK Parliament after Brit’s 12 month long ordeal “I hold grave concerns about the UAE and their own lawlessness. They have recently violated international law in attacking a US flagged yacht at sea and kidnapping all foreign nationals onboard. They have repeatedly used spyware and intelligence agencies against lawyers, advocates, journalists, human rights activists and legal opponents and can not be trusted with unrestricted access to Interpol’s entire operation. The King of Interpol Abuse “And while Interpol has a history of corruption, no amount of UAE ‘donations’ should sway the organisation to damage its already tarnished reputation. The former Chinese president disappeared in a controversial arrest in his own country and Al Raisi would only serve to help us push for legal accountability.” Radha Stirling previously wrote on Al Raisi’s potential appointment: Interpol “pawns to Arab nations” as Abu Dhabi bids for presidency. Stirling calls for reform. About Radha Stirling: Radha Stirling is a leading human rights advocate, crisis manager and policy consultant, focusing on the UAE and the wider Middle East. She is the founder and CEO of British based organisation Detained in Dubai (which have helped almost twenty thousand victims of injustice over the past 13+ years), Due Process International and IPEX (Interpol and Extradition) Reform. Stirling also hosts the Gulf in Justice Podcast. In 2010, Ms Stirling expanded her work beyond the UAE, dealing with both civil and criminal cases internationally. She has provided expert witness testimony in several high profile extradition and arbitration cases, while lobbying for Interpol reform. About IPEX Reform: Established by Radha Stirling, founder and CEO of Detained in Dubai, and a leading voice against Interpol abuse, Interpol and Extradition Reform (IPEX) is a comprehensive initiative to address the widespread and multilayered problems with the current framework of the extradition process, including the many flaws in Interpol itself as an organisation. Radha Stirling has successfully lobbied Australian Parliament to include human rights provisions in their extradition treaty with the UAE, appeared for the defence as an expert witness in several high profile extradition cases and has worked tirelessly to remove wrongfully listed clients from Interpol’s database. She has led the call for greater Interpol transparency and reforms to end abuse by an emerging “authoritarian nexus” which misuses the Interpol Red Notice system to circumvent due process. IPEX demands that Interpol implement practical measures to ensure the protection of refugees from politically motivated malicious extradition requests, including the establishment of data sharing agreements with the UNHCR and national governments so that individuals who have been granted asylum will not be put at risk of extradition to the countries from which they have fled. This proposal is currently supported by prominent barristers in the United Kingdom, human rights organisations, and activists. Furthermore, IPEX suggests core reforms to state-to-state extradition requests and Interpol protocols to ensure these processes will not be used for political persecution, extortion of debtors, and in an attempt to circumvent international standards of due process by instituting a global criteria for the consideration of extradition requests which include human rights concerns and the integrity of national legal systems. Home | IPEX Reform

Published December 27th, 2018 Al Bawaba Hayder al-Shakarchi Update: On 11th February the New York Times and others reported that a Thai court had dropped the extradiction case against Hakeem. The player is now free to return to Australia. Exactly one month ago, Hakeem Al-Araibi, a professional football player in Australia, was wrongfully detained in Thailand at the hands of Bahrain through an Interpol Red Notice. Once Bahrain had the Notice issued, Araibi was immediately arrested upon arrival at Thailand in Bangkok Airport while on vacation with his wife for their honeymoon. Since 2012, Araibi has been under constant threat from his homeland after he was arrested by Bahraini authorities due to the political activities of his brother during the Arab Spring protests. Like many others before him, Araibi stated that he was also subjected to torture during his time in jail in the country. After being released, Araibi immediately sought asylum in Australia. Australian immigration authorities understood that Araibi would face execution if sent back to Bahrain. Thus, Australia automatically ruled out any possibility of extradition and Araibi was officially granted political asylum in the country in 2014. Hence, the dilemma of the Bahraini refugee and his recent detainment has raised several significant questions regarding Interpol, as it has clearly backed numerous countries that have been documented for human rights abuse cases. Will Interpol continue to aid these countries in seeking ‘wanted’ individuals, even when abuse precludes the possibility of extradition in most countries? To what extent should these countries be allowed to utilize Interpol for their own agendas? Most importantly, what is Interpol’s agenda? Radha Stirling, an international extradition expert and CEO of Detained in Dubai, commented that “in 2015, Interpol announced that they would not consider any listing request pertaining to an asylum seeker or refugee requested by the country from which they had fled. Thus, Bahrain’s request for a Red Notice against Araibi should have been initially rejected. It is Interpol’s responsibility to ensure that their rules are adhered to, especially regarding Red and Blue Notices. Araibi is a refugee who was granted asylum by Australia. According to Interpol’s internal protocols, he should have been immune from a Red Notice request by Bahrain.” Countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates constantly misuse Interpol as a means for debt collection, even though private financial disputes fall beyond Interpol’s mandate. Gulf countries use the threat of a Red Notice to extort debtors often, even when they have been making payments or negotiating with creditors. The GCC continues to attempt and force them to capitulate with the demands of local business partners under the threat of an Interpol listing. When individuals apply for removal of such listings, they are usually granted on the grounds that they do not meet Interpol’s criteria. According to Stirling, “Interpol is clearly in urgent need of reform, and Australia should lead the call. Why has Interpol failed to recognize Australia’s granting of asylum to Abaidi, an act which should have instantly nullified Bahrain’s request for a Red Notice? There needs to be an end to the misuse of the Interpol system.” She added, “Countries with documented gross human rights violations; countries to which extradition is likely to result in an individual’s torture or death; should be altogether barred from recourse to Interpol. There needs to be international cooperation to implement human rights provisions in the extradition procedures of any nation. “In the case of Araibi, as in so many others, what countries like Bahrain rely on is ‘jurisdiction shopping.’ They list an individual on Interpol, knowing that most developed nations would never entertain the possibility of extradition, and just wait for that person to cross the border into a nation with a dismissive view on human rights.” This could be why Araibi was not stopped at the airport in Australia, but in Thailand. Thus, it would appear that Bahrain had waited to list Araibi on Interpol until it knew that he would be traveling to Thailand on his honeymoon. By the time that the Interpol Red Notice against Araibi was lifted, Thai authorities claimed that it did not matter since they already had an arrest and extradition request for Araibi from Bahrain. “The Red Notice against Araibi was illegitimate according to Interpol’s own rules. Thailand has not extradition treaty with Bahrain, and Araibi is in grave danger of torture or death if he is sent to Bahrain. The Australian government has good relations with Thailand, but if their extradition procedures make no consideration of human rights concerns, the government needs to push for reforms in this area and the case of Araibi presents an urgent need for change; otherwise Australians cannot feel secure traveling to Thailand,” Stirling explained. On 11 December, Araibi’s detention was extended for another sixty days by a Bangkok court. "I don't want to go back to Bahrain - I want to go back to Australia. I didn't do anything in Bahrain. I'm a refugee in Australia," Araibi said as he exited the courtroom. "If I am deported to Bahrain, don't forget me, and if once I'm there you hear me saying things, don't believe me," Araibi posted on Facebook. He explained that he knew what would happen to him if he was to be sent back to Bahrain: “I will be tortured to confess things that I have never done." Applying for removal of a Notice which was clearly politically-motivated can take months, only to have Interpol eventually concede that the listing should never have occurred. It is time for the international community to demand Interpol reform before more lives are needlessly placed in jeopardy.

The four members were hosted by an equestrian club with close ties to the state’s ruling family, whose record on human rights has been sharply criticised by campaign groups. The ‘freebies’ were taken up during the five-day Qatar Goodwood Festival, which is regarded as one of the pinnacles of the flat-racing season, in the last week of July 2021. The MPs were hosted by Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club, part of the wealthy Gulf state’s Ministry of Sport and Culture, and its UK embassy at the event in West Sussex. MPs enjoyed thousands of pounds worth of hospitality from Qatar during the ‘Glorious Goodwood’ festival of horse racing. They enjoyed hospitality, accommodation and dinners, according to the official register of members’ financial interests. One of the guests, Laurence Robertson, who represents Tewkesbury, declared hosting amounting to £1,650 for himself and his wife between Wednesday, July 28 and the following day. The couple enjoyed hospitality at the racecourse and at the estate’s country house and four-star hotel. The other MPs hosted were Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, Nigel Evans and Mark Menzies. The details have emerged after David Beckham was criticised for becoming the face of Qatar’s World Cup 2022 in a reported £150 million deal. Qatar has been promoting its image ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell accused the state of ‘sportswashing’, where an entity uses major events to improve its image. Mr Tatchell said: ‘Qatar seems to be using freebies as a way to soften up MPs and win them over in advance of the World Cup. It looks like a PR bid to minimise criticism over its poor human rights record. ‘I’m shocked that these MPs were willing to accept the hospitality of a dictatorship. This is the latest example of sportswashing by Qatar. ‘It is using sport to boost its reputation and distract attention from its abuse of women, LGBT people and migrant workers.’ Beckham drew flak last month after it was reported that he has become the face of the oil-rich state’s World Cup promotion. The former England skipper is said to have received assurances that fans will be allowed to display rainbow flags and women’s rights are improving in a country where same-sex relations are illegal. Nigel Evans was among four MPs hosted at the Qatar Goodwood Festival by the state’s equestrian club. House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was among MPs who enjoyed hospitality courtesy of Qatar. Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Doha and Due Process International, said: ‘Qatar has invested significant funds into lobbying efforts aimed at the UK and into marketing the upcoming FIFA 2022. ‘Funds have been thrown at celebrities like David Beckham, media houses, academics and politicians. Qatar overall has been resilient to criticism over the years and that’s largely due to their economic contributions, but MPs, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and investors need to ensure they do not allow Qatar to whitewash their human rights record. ‘ Sir Lindsay, member for Chorley, was given guest passes for two people valued at £1,040, including hospitality, accommodation and dinner. Mr Evans, who represents Ribble Valley, and Mr Menzies, member for Fylde, received the same perks to the value of £700 each. The interests were all declared in the category of ‘gifts and benefits from outside the UK’. The club, which has its base at the state’s embassy in London, was established in the 1960s to develop Arabian horse racing and is described as a ‘government organisation’ on its Facebook page. The festival Qatar sponsors is known as ‘Glorious Goodwood’ and includes a ladies’ day and the King George Day between July 27 and July 31. Mr Evans and Mr Menzies also declared a trip to Qatar in October 2021, donated by the state’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of their work on the British-Qatar All-Party Parliamentary Group. The purpose was to meet ministers and officials to ‘discuss Qatar’s humanitarian and political response to the Afghanistan crisis, preparations for the world cup, worker’s rights reform and bilateral relations’. MPs financial interests have come under sharp focus in recent days, with a three-hour emergency debate about standards in the House of Commons on Monday. There is no suggestion that any of the MPs receiving hospitality from Qatar broke any rules. A spokeswoman for Sir Lindsay said: ‘All hospitality is declared in full and on time to the Registrar of Members’ Interests in accordance with the rules.’ Metro.co.uk has approached Mr Evans, Mr Menzies and Mr Robertson for comment.

"The relentless energy of the campaigners at Detained in Dubai continues to amaze as they take on one case of alleged abuse and miscarriage of justice after another. The organisation’s attention is now also engaged in countering the misuse of the Interpol notice system, including allegedly by banks such as HSBC Bank Middle East. Radha Stirling, the group’s chief executive, seems fairly blasé about the risks involved challenging powerful state bodies. “When you deal with clients whose lives are in crisis, often devastating situations; wrongly jailed, lost jobs, income, reputation, and with their families in a state of traumatic upheaval, you tend to focus on the risks and dangers they are dealing with rather than any risks involved with helping them,” she says." #Interpol #InterpolAbuse #InterpolRedNotice #RadhaStirling IPEX - Interpol & Extradition Reform & Defence Experts. Full article available at The Times

American woman's life has been torn apart by Qatar's abuse of the Interpol Red Notice system, raising serious human rights concerns. New Jersey international relations professional Nancy Samir never imagined that accepting an incredible offer to work for the Qatar Foundation would have ended as it did. 50 year old Nancy wound up hopeless, broke, stranded and separated from her children and parents and with the trauma ultimately resulting in her father’s death. Nancy was on her way to attend a job interview in the UAE that she thought would help her get her life back on track and even allow her to pay off her loan. Little did she know that it would be the start of one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. The mother of two grew up in New Jersey and pursued a graduate degree at a prestigious private university. She held many impressive positions in New York & Washington DC with a number of different international foundations & diplomatic missions. From a young age, Nancy travelled often around the world visiting different orphanages and refugee camps and was an active humanitarian and published many articles about the empowerment of women and youth. Listen to Nancy in an emotional episode of the Gulf in Justice Podcast with Radha Stirling: Deciding to develop her skills further, Nancy accepted a senior research position at one of the universities in Doha under the Qatar Foundation umbrella. In her exciting new role, Nancy worked directly with a former US Ambassador and advisor to Presidents Nixon and Reagan. Having settled into life in Doha and with her new employment, she was aggressively pursued by Qatar National Bank (QNB) and agreed to take out a loan to buy a car. The bank asked her to sign a ‘security cheque for the total amount of the loan. The justification for this bizarre practice is to prevent customers from defrauding the bank. If they default on a payment or flee the country, the bank will present the cheque. If it bounces, a criminal charge will be made. Nancy was very concerned but the bank employee assured her that it was standard practice in the Middle East and she had a steady job. Stirling: ‘Unprecedented aggression by Qatar banks against debtors, Interpol abuse is alarming Back at the office though, Nancy’s boss was writing on topics that were critical of the Muslim Brotherhood which was sensitive to the government of Qatar and so the decision was made by the management of that university to make both Nancy and her boss redundant, by explaining that the center where they both worked was going to be closed and that their possitions no longer existed as a result of the restructuring. Nancy was devastated considering that her employment contract listed an indefinite term of employment. Upon losing her secure employment unexpectedly, Nancy fire sold the car, losing much of its value. This left her with a bank debt, no car and no job. In no time at all, QNB presented the cheque which naturally bounced. They phoned her, pressuring her, telling her to turn herself into the police or prove that she had already secured another job. Nancy had managed to find a short term 6 month contract and appease the bank. Upon presenting the bank with proof of that new Kafeel or employment sponsor, they dropped the case but had her sign a new cheque. Nancy kept up her payments and was given leave to visit her family in the US. During her holiday, her new company notified her that the contract was not going to be renewed citing that Nancy was overqualified for the position. Nancy called and emailed QNB reassuring them that she would seek a new job in Qatar but she was told by the bank or collections agent, “No no no, if you come to Qatar, you’re going to be arrested at the airport because we’ve already filed a case against you in the prosecutor's office and there is a warrant for your arrest”. They began to harass her regularly and even threatened by email that they would issue an Interpol red notice in her name. Nancy didn’t take them seriously because her friends who worked at Qatari banks reassured her that there was no risk, “You owe around $50,000, why would any bank issue an Interpol red notice for that?” Nancy continued seeking alternative employment. Her luck seemed to change when she managed to land an interview with a government agency in Abu Dhabi. “I was so excited”, recalls Nancy, “in my mind I said, now I can make enough to pay back my loan.” On arrival though, Nancy was immediately arrested. “I was locked in an interrogation room for some time, handcuffed, then taken in a white car to CID, to the Interpol office. Most of the Emiratis that I dealt with were very compassionate and nice to me, but because of Qatar’s Interpol red notice against me, I had to be processed like a criminal. Walking outside of the airport in handcuffs was the most humiliating time of my life. When I arrived at the next holding room at a CID building, they told me there would be no extradition because there are currently no diplomatic relations between the two countries, but that I had to wait for a while to see what the Ministry of Interior was going to do with me. It was the scariest moment, not knowing what was going to happen next. ​Expats shocked Qatar & UAE banks are getting away with using INTERPOL as debt collector “They didn’t keep me in jail, they told me to go home and come back in the morning but they kept my US passport. I stayed in the UAE for about three weeks. I was losing my mind, I was suicidal. I went to the US Embassy, they wouldn’t help me. They wouldn’t even let me into the Embassy or allow me to speak to anyone. They just offered to provide me with a list of lawyers, reminding me that they didn't recommend any of them and they would not provide any financial or other support’. “I found myself in a situation where I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was starting to lose it, big time and then my father, when he heard what happened, had a stroke. My father’s condition started to deteriorate in 2017, he then contracted covid and sadly, passed away June of 2020”. “What I endured, after losing my job through no fault of my own and then being treated like a criminal, or even worse than criminals because I think some criminals don’t get the same treatment was a direct result of the inhumane way that QNB treats their customers. “When I was in Qatar, I attended so many human rights meetings. I actually believed Qatar stood for human rights, but when I tried to contact those same human rights organizations to ask them to advocate for me they ignored me completely. “Qatar reminds me of the Eagles song, “Hotel California”. In the beginning you think that you are in heaven but sooner than later you find yourself in the deepest pits of Hell”. “I managed to survive divorce, death of loved ones, disability and being a single mom, but what QNB put me through sucked the life out of me, and broke me. I believe that the post-traumatic stress that I have faced as a result of this experience has changed my outlook on life. I will never be the same.” A British national, John Nicholas was also wrongfully listed on Qatar's Interpol Red Notice database by Qatar National Bank for a small bank loan which Mr Nicholas had almost entirely discharged by the time he left Qatar. QNB added atrocious charges to try to escalate the claiming amount beyond Interpol's minimum 15,000 Euro threshold for a Red Notice. “QNB and other Qatar based banks have been repeat abusers of Interpol’s Red Notice database,” said Radha Stirling, an expert witness, leading voice in the fight against ‘Interpol Abuse’ and founder of IPEX (Interpol & Extradition) Reform. “It’s absurd that Qatar has been permitted by Interpol to use their database as a means to collect bank and credit card debts from foreign nationals. Banks have pressured Qatari law enforcement to report even small debtors to Interpol, with a view to having them detained abroad and pressured to discharge credit cards and loans. This is clearly against INTERPOL’s charter and a violation of their membership agreement but Interpol would rather accept the donations from Middle Eastern countries and remain silent, than to punish them for abusing Interpol’s power and reputation. “Alan Stevenson was detained in Prague on a frivolous notice and David Blackhouse was pulled from his car in Britain as though he were an international fugitive. Radha Stirling: Alan Stevenson catalyst for Interpol reform and human rights compliance “Interpol has become a pay to play organisation, open to manipulation and abuse by countries with poor human rights records. Countries like the UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Egypt and China have been able to use the crime tool for their own personal vendettas. Brit arrested in Spain over Qatar Interpol warrant “Countries like Qatar and the UAE, have used Interpol’s reach to extend their jurisdiction beyond their borders, causing the arrest, detention and prosecution abroad of many innocent victims. Innocent individuals have been listed on Interpol, arrested, detained and tried for “crimes'' that don’t even meet Interpol’s minimum reporting criteria. Journalists, activists, businessmen and credit card debtors have been locked up in Western nations at the mere request of countries who repeatedly take advantage of their membership with Interpol. Dubai banks’ use of Interpol to extradite debtors from outside the country. “We have managed to remove numerous Qatar issued arrest warrants for violating Interpol’s charter and it’s certainly time that Interpol themselves were legally held to account. “Nancy has suffered greatly as a result of the wrongful red notice. It is time US policy makers review Interpol’s sovereign immunity and promote the accountability of such powerful organisations. Nancy’s name will be removed from Interpol’s database but she will not be compensated, she will not get an apology, and this will happen again and again until powerful countries recognise the damage a frivolous notice can cause”. Further media and related resources: Radha Stirling - Inspiring Leader 2021 Magazine Feature Home | IPEX Reform

Afghanistan soldier with PTSD jailed in Abu Dhabi, reveals hellish prison conditions A 44 year old PTSD sufferer and Afghanistan veteran (Army & Navy) has been detained in Dubai over a bank debt he was working to repay. The war survivor accepted a UAE government contract in 2012 following his role in Afghanistan. He relocated, settled in and like any new expat will experience, he was aggressively hounded by local bank ADCB, he decided to accept a loan to buy a property there. The father of three and grandfather, Shannon Johnston, originally from West Virginia before moving to Alabama, was unexpectedly diagnosed with a neurological issue that caused him to urgently need to return to the US for specialist medical care. This left him in default and the bank immediately, as is standard, presented the security cheque provided by him when taking out the loan. “It is standard practice in the UAE for banks to request a blank cheque as security against a loan”, said Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai and Due Process International, who has been dealing with these cases for almost a decade and a half. “In the event of any default, the bank will present the cheque and if it bounces, it becomes a criminal offence, regardless of the circumstances”. Shannon was not aware of this. Following extensive medical treatment, Shannon had to return quickly to work. He had tried to appease the bank, letting them know his situation and that he was getting a new job and would resume payments shortly. He accepted a new role with Lockheed Martin, a defense corporation in Huntsville which required him to travel overseas. “Last year, dad was sent to the Philippines as part of his job. We thought we’d see him again quickly and had no idea what was about to happen”, Shannon’s 22 year old daughter Jasmyn recalled. “There was no heads up. We didn’t know this was possible”. His flight to the Philippines had an unfortunate transit stop in Dubai. Shannon was taken from the plane with all of his belongings, unaware that he was about to end up in a Middle Eastern jail, notorious for human rights abuses. He was handcuffed and shackled and transferred to Dubai prison where he was told he was facing criminal charges over a bank loan he had taken in good faith. After surviving extreme and deadly situations abroad, living with PTSD and undergoing medical treatment, he was broken to learn that as he was getting his life back together, it was all going horribly wrong. War hero Andy Neal jailed in Abu Dhabi finally returns home after being EXONERATED of drugs charges Dubai arranged for him to be transferred to Abu Dhabi Central Jail, a prison that has seen numerous foreigners complain of the horrendous conditions, including British veteran Andy Neal who was detained unfairly for over a year. Artur Ligeska, a Polish national wrote a whole book about the kind of abuse and torture he suffered in the same facility. Ms Stirling, who has helped many Abu Dubai detainees described the prison as “inhumane, overcrowded and seriously risky to detainees who face violence and human rights violations within the system”. Jasmyn said “the judicial system is completely inadequate. It’s in shambles. They haven’t given him enough food. He has no hygiene products. His shampoo and glasses were taken by prison guards. He’s stuck in very poor, overcrowded conditions infested with insects and rodents. It’s disgusting. He can hardly ever use the phone and when he does, he has to pay for it. He hasn’t been allowed any daylight or exercise and he has no bedding or sleeping items. He is locked in a cell at night and not given any water. This is a desert prison and they don’t even give them water overnight. He’s suffered dehydration on a regular basis. He’s had no access to his medication and has been given no medical treatment. The list goes on. “The US Embassy has done nothing either. This is a veteran who has served his country and he is just discarded like nothing over a bank debt? I can’t fathom how the US government can turn its back on him. He’s a Chistian and he’s not allowed to practice his religion, he has nothing to keep his mental wellbeing which is important to him after his past trauma. Americans detained in Dubai - A by-product of UAE lobbying? “There was a fight in the prison and the people involved were handcuffed to the cell bars, with their hands above their head and their feet pushed into the bars so that they could not stand”. Stirling added “it is completely unacceptable that the UAE, a supposed ally of the United States, is locking up American citizens over such trivial and frivolous matters that would be considered civil issues in the States. They are then being subjected to outrageous and demoralising treatment. Christian, Shannon’s 19 year old son, has expressed his anger at America’s lack of diplomatic support for his father. “We are being told by the US government that they cannot intervene in a foreign legal system but now we have learned this is not true. They will not even do welfare checks on my dad and this is an insult. We are going to be contacting everyone who can help, Senators, Congress people & the US State Department, making sure we don’t just accept this kind of treatment. It’s not right”. Ms Stirling confirmed “We are not asking the US to intervene in a legal system, but we are certainly asking them to diplomatically intervene in a situation of injustice where a military man has been unfairly detained over a bank debt. The US government has intervened in the past with American David Oliver, Peter Clark, Danielle Jeffries and others and managed to get them free. American lecturer is being 'held hostage' in Dubai | Daily Mail Online “The UAE has on many occasions deceived the public into believing they have no instated working bankruptcy laws, that they have removed prison sentences for bounced cheques and that they will take the circumstances surrounding the cheques into account. None of this is true. Since our inception in 2008, bank debts, credit card debts, utility bills and bounced cheques have been the cause of thousands of detentions. Some people never make it out of prison and if they do, a corresponding civil case will put them right back in jail. If they are outside of the country, they will likely be reported as an Interpol Red Notice fugitive alongside drug lords and murderers, despite this breaking Interpol’s own rules. “The UAE has invested significant money into legal and illegal lobbying into Washington DC and into the private sector, as well as major marketing endeavours that cover up the significant but regular human rights violations. The UAE Expo has just begun with the goal of attracting even more investors, skilled labourers or shall we call them, future victims? The European Parliament this month boycotted the expo based on human rights concerns and the treatment of women but what is the United States going to do? The truth about leaving a debt behind in Dubai. “We will certainly be raising this case and others in DC and in English Parliament, as well as filing policy recommendations to the US with these regular occurrences in mind. If the UAE is going to make a substantial effort to attract foreigners and foreign business, they must start treating foreigners fairly.” Shannon’s family are committed to bringing him home and raising this case within military and government circles but if their efforts fall on deaf ears, Shannon will never be able to leave the UAE, even if released from prison. In the UAE, debtors are not allowed to leave the country but are not allowed to work either, leaving them in an endless cycle which often leads to homelessness as in the case of US national, David Oliver.

The man’s voice was shaking on the telephone, “I’ve just been held at the airport, they say it is on an Interpol Red Notice from the UAE, I haven’t even lived there since 2008!” The woman on the other end of the line replied assuringly, in a tone equally professional and compassionate; even as she scrolled through dozens of emails on her laptop; each with a nightmarish story, an emergency, or a desperate plea for help. So begins a typical morning for the founder and CEO of Detained in Dubai, Radha Stirling. For over a dozen years, foreign nationals embroiled in legal dramas with the United Arab Emirates have found comfort in her calming, authoritative voice. She promises them solutions, and delivers. Stirling has been involved in some of the UAE’s highest profile cases, including bringing media attention to the escape and capture of Princess Latifa, the daughter of the Ruler of Dubai. But, she says, most of her work is done out of the spotlight. “At least 60-70% of our cases involve financial and business disputes between Emiratis and foreign citizens who have been cheated, extorted, or wrongfully prosecuted for fraud, when local partners exploit UAE laws and a biased justice system to their advantage,” she explains. The depth and breadth of her experience has made Radha Stirling the go-to legal and human rights expert on the UAE and broader Gulf region for major news outlets, such as the BBC, CNN, Sky News, and print media. She is a regular speaker and consultant with policy think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, and her work requires almost constant liaising with government officials around the world. “I remember the appalling case of Canadian Andre Gauthier, who had been wrongfully accused and charged with a massive scam in the UAE which he himself had actually exposed. The real scamster tried to scapegoat Andre, and he spent over a year in prison. But we consulted with the Canadian government day and night, advising their diplomatic strategy for securing Andre’s release until finally the UAE dropped the charges on all counts and let him go home.” - Quebec geologist back home after being detained in Dubai | CTV News Last year, Stirling expanded her work with the founding of Due Process International, which allows her to accept cases outside the Gulf, addressing legal failings throughout the Middle East, Asia, and beyond. “Foreign nationals often do not know what they are getting into when they go abroad,” she explains, “This is particularly true for investors and business people. They typically examine a very narrow set of criteria before deciding to set up stakes in another country – the ease of investing, the procedures for obtaining visas, rules on ownership – but they seldom review the overall human rights situation, the impartiality of the judiciary, and the actual experiences of other foreigners who have landed in legal trouble there. Just as with tourists, business people can easily find themselves under arrest in the UAE, and many other countries where the legal system has not kept pace with business development; even if they have scrupulously followed the law.” Calls like the panicked one she received in the morning, come in all day long. “The Gulf countries, the UAE and Qatar particularly, are habitual abusers of the Interpol system, having Red Notices issued as a form of harassment and even blackmail to force foreign investors and business people to pay off fabricated debts and exorbitant settlements,” Stirling cautions, “Our organisation has a 100% success rate in getting these abusive Notices removed. Being listed on Interpol is disastrous for anyone, being treated like a fugitive when you have done nothing wrong, but it can be especially devastating for a business owner with an international clientele or supply chain.” - Home | IPEX Reform Not only has Stirling been successful in the removal of her clients’ wrongful Red Notices, she has become the leading advocate for reform of the entire Interpol system, advising policy officials and legal activists on how the international policing organisation can improve. “After years of supplying expert testimony in UAE extradition cases in the UK, detailing the corrupt, frequently brutal criminal justice system; the High Court of England finally has taken the position that Britain will not extradite people to the Emirates, due to human rights concerns. Nevertheless, people will still get detained and questioned in the UK over an Interpol Red Notice requested by the UAE,” Radha says, “In 2019, an Australian footballer, Hakeem Al Araibi, who is a refugee from Bahrain was arrested in Thailand over a Red Notice from Bahrain – the country he fled for political persecution. After considerable campaigning and communication with authorities, he was released; but it never should have happened. It is against Interpol’s own rules; but Interpol does not screen Red Notice requests before listing people. It can take months for Interpol to grant removal requests over Notices that never should have been issued. Even when a country routinely requests wrongful listings, Interpol does not revoke or suspend their right to request Red Notices. There need to be measures inside the organisation to check abuse of the system. Otherwise, countries like the UAE will continue to use Interpol as an instrument to expand their own de facto jurisdiction overseas” That kind of overreach is something Radha Stirling has cautioned against for years. In one of her most talked-about cases, British national Laleh Shahravesh was arrested in the UAE over a Facebook post she wrote while in England. “The UAE’s Cybercrime laws are so vague and broad that literally anyone, anywhere, who says something online, can be charged in Dubai with a cybercrime if someone in the Emirates doesn’t like what they said. If they have never been to the UAE, it doesn’t matter. They could potentially be tried in absentia, and even reported to Interpol – all without knowing any of this has happened, just like Laleh.” "She is able to do what ambassadors, foreign secretaries, and diplomats cannot" - Outlook Initiative After more than 13 years and over 15,000 clients, dealing with every imaginable type of case – from being jailed in Dubai over a selfie at the wrong time and place, to business disputes worth hundreds of millions of pounds, from foreign nationals forced to sign false confessions to family members being detained over a relative’s bounced cheque; there is no other organisation with the expertise or track record of Detained in Dubai, and no one with the experience, insight, and skill of Radha Stirling in dealing with seemingly hopeless cases. More than once, a wrongfully accused foreign national has been released from UAE custody just because a tweet or news article mentioned that Detained in Dubai had taken the case; Dubai’s Ruler has even intervened to overrule court decisions on behalf of Stirling’s clients. If someone is facing legal problems in the UAE, the Gulf, or indeed, with the creation of Due Process International, in any foreign jurisdiction anywhere, they should have Radha Stirling on speed-dial. She is able to do what ambassadors, foreign secretaries, and diplomats cannot; and when you hear her calm voice promising you over the phone --as the police are pulling you aside -- that everything is going to be OK; you can be certain that it will be. There are thousands of people who have been in the same predicament who can attest to that. Related resources and Media: Read the Daily Mail's report on Detained in Dubai Join Detained in Dubai on YouTube See Detained in Dubai Testimonials Follow Radha Stirling on Linkedin Follow Radha Stirling on Instagram