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"A former member of Etihad Airways cabin crew who recently lost his job in a wave of redundancies because of the COVID-19 pandemic says he faces being sent to jail because he can no longer afford the repayments on a $100,000 loan used to invest in Bitcoin at the height of the cryptocurrency craze. The 34-year-old French national says he is expected to pay back $2,230 every month until the end of 2021 to clear the 338,000 Dirham loan. Unlike many countries, failing to repay a debt is a criminal offence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where debtors could be sent to jail for up to three years. The British charity, Detained in Dubai (which helps in criminal cases across the UAE) say they have witnessed an uptick in what they describe as “aggressive” tactics from banks which include criminal enforcement. In the past, expat residents had fled to their home country to renegotiate debt in relative safety but Radha Stirling, the chief executive of Detained in Dubai says there’s been an “upswing in the amount of Interpol threats” for expat debtors who return home to avoid unpaid loans. “Using Interpol to detain and extradite debtors to the UAE people is not legal, but the UAE banks know that most victims don’t know how to fight the Red Notice or avoid it altogether,” she says. “In fact, the first many former expats learn about Red Notices is when they are detained at an airport.” For the unnamed Etihad flight attendant, the story began in late 2017 when he took out the huge loan with Emirates Islamic Bank to make his first-ever investment in Bitcoin. At the time, the cryptocurrency was at an all-time high but within less than a year, he claims he had lost 85 per cent on his initial investment. Both he had and his wife have lost their jobs with Etihad Airways and she can’t afford to repay an unrelated debt. Last year, it emerged that potentially hundreds of Emirates cabin crew had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a Ponzi-style investment scam. Investors were promised returns of between 5 and 20 per cent when they opened an account with a deposit of at least $10,000 – some victims invested over $100,000 in the scam but lost everything." Full article available at: PaddleYourOwnKanoo

".... CEO [of Detained in Dubai] and lawyer Radha Stirling said: “Atif went to the UAE trusting in a job opportunity. He trusted that the UAE has checks in place to safeguard against unscrupulous fraudsters. On all points, the Emirates let him down. How can anyone have confidence in the UAE as a destination for expat professionals, when a job application can turn into identity theft, and the victim himself is prosecuted?” Ms Stirling is calling on the FCO to coordinate with counterparts in the UAE to get the charges against Atif dismissed, and is urging Dubai authorities to expedite his return home. “There are transactions in the UAE when he was on honeymoon in Bali, and since he has been home in Aylesbury,” she said. “The police and the prosecutors know perfectly well that Atif has been victimised, yet they continue to compound his victimisation by not allowing him to go home.” Full article available at iNews

We’ve made it quick and convenient for you to manage your blog from anywhere. In this blog post we’ll share the ways you can post to your Wix Blog. The disturbing news has broken that Bahrain intends to continue with the extradition request of Australian resident, Bahraini refugee and pro footballer Mr Hakeem Alaraibi.  Bahrain has not responded to the international campaign and media pressure to withdraw their application, and Thailand has seemingly not sought a diplomatic resolution with Bahrain, a solution that is still available to Thai authorities. The unfair detention of Mr Alaraibi is placing intense strain on Australia’s long term relationship with Thailand, as many high profile individuals, groups and key politicians seek his immediate return to Australia. Australian national Radha Stirling, founder of Detained in Dubai and expert witness in extradition and Interpol cases who is supporting the campaign to #SaveHakeem, said “While Thailand continues to allow the judicial procedure to unfold, the country risks its own reputation and its tourism industry being dragged down by a gulf nation notorious for human rights abuses, torture and unfair detentions.” Had Bahrain made the decision to withdraw its request at the early stages of arrest, Hakeem would have been free to return to Australia and the consequences for Bahrain would have been minimal; Instead, Bahrain has made the deliberate decision to push for extradition, even against its own interests with Western allies. Stirling said “Middle Eastern countries notoriously push for full extradition trials, even where they are fully aware that they will lose such a request. They do this as a means to punish individuals like Hakeem, to set an example to other would-be activists, or to show their power to gulf allies. In some instances, they simply do not wish to admit that the request was wrong or that they have flaws in their own judicial process, or admit they engaged in Interpol abuse. Middle Eastern countries often vacillate between allying themselves with Western interests or rallying the support of gulf neighbours. Bahrain does not wish to lose face amongst their Arab friends”. Although it has already been determined that the Interpol notice was in violation of Interpol’s own rules, its withdrawal and cancelation does not mean the extradition request will be withdrawn. Extradition requests can be made directly to another country in the absence of a Red Notice. Ms Stirling commented “As it was the Red Notice that caused his arrest, Interpol’s lack of a formal process to prevent such a notice being listed renders them open to precedent-setting legal action and when Hakeem is finally free, I would encourage him to take such action to force accountability on Interpol for their negligence”. In most Western countries, in a situation such as Hakeem’s, bail would be granted to the individual facing extradition. This is largely due to the fact that Western nations have become aware of Middle Eastern nations misuse of Interpol & Extradition proceedings as a means to harass or intimidate victims, and because these same countries are aware that an extradition is unlikely given the expectation of unfair trials, human rights violations and torture. Radha Stirling has appeared for the defence in a number of extradition requests from Middle Eastern countries. Stirling says “In almost all cases, bail was granted throughout proceedings and there is no cause to hold Hakeem in custody; He is not a flight risk, nor a violent offender. He has passed Australia’s most stringent process and successfully sought asylum. It is bad enough that he must face this grave legal abuse, but to not be granted bail in the interim is absurd”. In the event that Thailand does not diplomatically resolve Hakeem’s freedom, the Thai courts may choose at the preliminary hearings to deny Bahrain the option to proceed to a full trial and he may be released once this decision has been made. In the event that Thai courts allow a full trial, Hakeem will be detained in Thailand pending a full hearing, potentially without bail. The question here is whether Thai courts will foresee the extradition request’s failure on the basis of Hakeem’s refugee status and on human rights considerations, thus ruling in his favour at the first hearings; Or whether they will allow that decision to be made after hearing full submissions which may take months or years. Stirling said “I of course, call on Thai judicial authorities to follow accepted standards and to fulfil their obligations under the conventions they have signed respecting human rights and torture and see that in fact, Hakeem’s unfair detention is indeed already a violation of his human rights, and another form of torture he has had to endure. Hakeem, like many others, is facing a cruel, lengthy and unnecessary process that highlights serious flaws in international extradition standards, in that, there are none. Western governments need to assess the extradition standards of their friends and allies, in order to ensure citizens are not at risk of being extradited to countries where they may face human rights abuses, torture or extrajudicial executions. Australia needs to issue urgent travel warnings to citizens and residents to avoid countries like Thailand, who appear to be cooperating with authoritarian Middle Eastern regimes”. Radha Stirling has called on Australia-Thailand Chamber of Commerce business leaders to support Hakeem’s release, FIFA’s support, as well as urgent Interpol reforms, worldwide extradition standards and Williams Formula 1 fans to avoid the Bahrain hosted race in March. #SaveHakeem #IPEXReform #IPEX #FIFA #Thailand #Australia #AFP #WilliamsF1 #Bahrain #Extradition #Interpol #InterpolAbuse

Slow economic growth in the UAE connected with lower oil prices, and the property market’s consistent failure to live up to expectations, alongside recent increases in lending by the major Emirates’ banks, is creating conditions for a perfect storm of debt persecution for expats and foreign business owners in the UAE. "When we see the economic indicators coming out of the UAE at the moment, it is immediately worrisome because the country has a policy of waging war on debtors whenever the economy slows down,” warns Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai. “Doing business in Dubai for small to medium size companies is getting more difficult and more costly, and it is often necessary to depend on loans and other forms of financing to survive. Financial analysts are anticipating higher incidences of default in 2019 than in previous years; and in the UAE, this inevitably becomes a criminal matter.” Stirling says that failure to strictly comply with the repayment schedule on a UAE bank loan can result in prosecution and jail time; and the same applies to bounced cheques. “For Westerners, the way the UAE treats debts and bounced cheques is incomprehensible. A business owner can find themselves detained, their passport confiscated, and deprived of their ability to work; all because a creditor has filed a police complaint against them over a bounced cheque or delayed loan payment. Oftentimes, people and companies are merely the victims of circumstances beyond their control, or even the victims of the government’s own poor economic management; but they are nevertheless persecuted for what is understood everywhere else to be the normal ups and downs of running a small business; and their whole company ends up collapsing.” The UAE government has been pumping billions of dollars into local banks in recent years to keep them afloat after rampant defaults on small business and personal loans, and analysts are predicting the trend to only worsen over the coming year. “It isn’t surprising that the government has to artificially create liquidity in the banks,” Stirling says, “Because the UAE’s ruthless approach to debt collection literally makes it impossible for debtors to repay what they owe. The aggressive collection agency tactics used in the UAE would be deemed criminal harassment in the West; clients have come to us who have even had their families threatened by collection agents. The banks are so belligerent that their methods often cost people their jobs. And, obviously, criminalising debt as the UAE does is entirely counterproductive; people cannot earn money in prison to repay a loan.” Stirling explains that leaving the UAE with a plan to repay a debt from abroad is also hindered by the UAE’s frequent use of Interpol. “Exiting the UAE while having a debt or bounced cheque case will make a person a fugitive in the eyes of the government, and they are very likely to have their names submitted to Interpol and be subjected to a Red Notice,” she cautions, “The UAE is the top abuser of the Interpol system, and we have seen hundreds of clients’ lives and livelihoods devastated by the effects of an Interpol listing. While we are able to apply for removal from the Interpol database, there is nothing that can be done to undo the damage the listing can cause.” With loan defaults expected to rise this year in the UAE, and with no incentive by banks to self-correct in their lending practices due to unlimited cash injections by the government, Stirling advises expats and business owners to be wary. “The UAE makes it dangerously easy to get access to credit, but it is even easier to run into financial difficulties. It is important to seek professional advice and the intervention of a debt negotiator the moment any problems arise that might result in late or non-payment of a debt, and in the case of a bounced cheque. The longer situations like this go unaddressed, the more dramatically the UAE will escalate them, and the consequences can be catastrophic.” Detained in Dubai has worked on a number of high profile instances of debt persecution over the past 1-2 years; US officials intervened in the case of their citizen David Oliver, who was being kept in Dubai despite suffering mental and physical health problems. British national, Jonathan Castle is still being prevented from returning to the UK and prevented from working, leaving him in a situation where he will never be able to resolve his debts. Meanwhile, a string of expats have been wrongfully placed on Interpol’s red notice database, including Steven Williams who was arrested in Mallorca, Spain and a British woman arrested in Italy over a 15,000 Euro credit card debt.

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. full article available at albawaba.com

“God knows why the UAE wanted to list me with Interpol, but it can't have been for any pleasant reason.” Mr Mukadam faced jail after being accused of “offensive and insulting behaviour for making an obscene gesture while on a visit to Dubai in February. He was driving a hire car when the alleged incident happened. He said: “I pulled over and they were screaming at me. I stuck my finger up and drove off and thought nothing of it.” However, offensive gestures are considered a public obscenity crime in Dubai and this led to legal action. Mr Mukadam, who was on his way to the airport at the time, headed back to the UK, but on a return visit to the United Arab Emirates, authorities caught up with him and he was arrested. Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, a UAE justice group, said that abuse of Interpol has been a long standing tactic of the UAE, one of Interpol's largest voluntary cash contributors." Full article available at: LeicestershireLive

The UAE has removed most of the ‘red notices’ issued to Interpol to try and track down suspects who ‘skipped’ the country due to fraud and financial crimes. The number of notices issued by the government - which are an official request to all Interpol’s 188 members to arrest those suspected of criminal activity - has dropped from over 200 by the end of 2010 to 47 in March this year. Many of the notices that appear to have been cancelled by the UAE related to fraud, and have been linked with legislation that deems bounced cheques and some business failures a criminal matter. An unknown number of expatriates ‘skipped’ the UAE as a result of the financial crisis, while reports suggested in 2007 that as many as 40 percent of the inmates in Dubai Central Prison were there for failing to repay bank loans. The Gulf region’s consumer credit rose by 460 percent between 2002 and 2008 to reach US$151bn. According to Interpol’s online records, only one British national is now the subject of UAE-requested ‘red notice’. Christopher Lockwood, aged 64, is wanted in connection with the high-profile assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai in 2010. Most of the other existing notices issued by the UAE are related to crimes such as murder and manslaughter. There are still two notices related to ‘banking/financial fraud’ and three related to ‘fraud’. Local officials are currently working on a draft of the UAE’s first ever bankruptcy law, which is likely to be completed by the end of the year. “I am pleased for those who can finally live without the fear of being arrested and possibly extradited to the UAE for matters most countries consider civil,” Radha Stirling, a British lawyer and founder of the ‘Detained in Dubai’ support group, told Arabian Business in an email statement. “We hope that this move will improve the credibility of the other UAE-issued Interpol notices for more serious crimes and we can now focus on negotiating with banks to repay debts, rather than extradition hearings.”