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Stirling removes another two Interpol Red Notices in January IPEX (Interpol & Extradition) Reform founder, Radha Stirling, successfully removed another two wrongful Interpol Red Notices last month, releasing two innocent people from the crippling restrictions imposed by Interpol at the request of the United Arab Emirates. INTERPOL RED NOTICE REMOVAL | Detained in Dubai “We petitioned Interpol for these removals last year,” Stirling said, “Our clients have been financially punished and treated like fugitives for months because of their inappropriate listing on the Interpol database; they have been unable to travel safely, and have seen their lives ground to a halt because Interpol does not sufficiently vet Red Notice requests before implementing them; even when those requests are made by chronic abusers of the Interpol system, like the UAE. Cannabis Grinder Scot jailed in Corfu celebrates New Year as drug charges dropped by Middle East prosecutors - Daily Record “While we are, of course, happy and gratified to see these Red Notices removed, it is inescapable that they should never have been issued in the first place. We have over a decade’s experience winning removals for our wrongfully listed clients, and are intimately familiar with Interpol’s rules for data collection and their protocols for issuing Red, Blue, and other Notices. When we request a removal, essentially, we engage in the very vetting process Interpol should be performing before issuing a Notice. That is; we identify and articulate all of the aspects of the case which make it ineligible for a listing. This is a process which Interpol should actually implement before accepting a Red Notice request and wreaking havoc on the lives of innocent people. Instead, they issue Notices without scrutiny, and it is left to the victims of a wrongful listing to prove why it should be removed.” British man detained in Ukraine for 14 months over bounced cheque allowed home - Mirror Online Stirling pointed out that countries like the UAE habitually request frivolous Red Notices over private financial disputes and civil matters which do not conform to Interpol’s own rules. “The UAE frequently uses the threat of Red Notices as a form of extortion to force people to settle business disputes that have no legal weight outside Emirates’ jurisdiction, and as a method of harassment to disrupt their lives so thoroughly that they will acquiesce to the biassed judgements of UAE courts. In many of these cases, no Western country would seriously consider extradition, not least of all because of the UAE’s dismal human rights record; but also because the Red Notices are entirely without merit. Yet, Interpol continues to accept Red Notice requests from countries like the UAE and Qatar without any mechanism for reviewing their appropriateness. Countless people have had their lives turned upside-down because the international policing organisation cannot be bothered to ensure conformity of Red Notice requests with their own rules. Stevenson detention ‘an abuse of his rights’ - The Royal Gazette “We have had clients detained at airports, swarmed by police in restaurants, and even practically run off the road by police acting upon these Red Notices. Many were forced to undergo costly extradition proceedings -- often while held in jail. Families have been separated for months, deaths of loved ones missed, and businesses have gone bankrupt; all because of these wrongful listings.” INTERPOL - ‘Urgent reform needed to prevent human rights abuses’, leading expert says Stirling’s recent clients celebrated the deletion of their names from Interpol’s database last month, with one stating, “It is like being freed from prison, I can’t believe it, it’s finally over!” Another family’s ordeal came to an end, relaying “You made us so happy. I have not seen my parents smile for so long. Me too. I feel like the world has opened up again. We keep reading the letter over and over. You are an amazing person. You helped me and I owe you. Thank you!” Many cases, Stirling explains, involve people who have already been victimised by unscrupulous business partners in the Gulf who manipulate their local court systems to persecute foreign professionals they scammed. “The overwhelming majority of these Notices arise from cheque cases in Dubai or Doha where a local partner or associate illegally cashes a security cheque in violation of contractual agreements with our client. When the cheque bounces, they file criminal charges with conviction following almost automatically soon thereafter. The client is then hit with an Interpol Red Notice in an attempt to force them to pay the local off. Time and again, these wrongful listings severely compound the injustices our clients have already suffered. While we are reliably successful in getting these Notices removed, Interpol takes an inordinate amount of time to process our petitions, and the toll it takes on our clients in the interim can be devastating.” Testimonials | IPEX Stirling founded IPEX after over a dozen years as CEO of Detained in Dubai, during which she noted the dramatic abuse of Interpol by Gulf States and the organisation’s persistent failure to enact much needed reforms. “We have helped hundreds of people get their names removed from Interpol’s database, people who committed no crimes; people who should never have been subjected to Red Notices; and we will continue lobbying Interpol for greater transparency and accountability until abuses like these are completely eliminated.” IPEX Reform Detained in Dubai: http://www.detainedindubai.org Detained in Doha: https://www.detainedindoha.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... 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“It is such an honour to be approaching a decade and a half of service”, said Radha Stirling, the organisation’s founder, who has faced great triumphs and adversity over her years of defending victims in the Middle East. “The tragedies, the sleepless nights, the hackers and spies, the autocratic rulers combined with great victories, change and life changing moments. There is never a dull moment at Detained in Dubai. Stirling founded Detained in Dubai in 2008 during her advocacy for friend, Cat Le-Huey: “We have highlighted systemic issues within the UAE’s judicial system, those of corruption, police brutality, forced confessions and wrongful prosecutions and we highlighted legislative concerns in desperate need of review. In doing so, we have managed to save thousands of people from arbitrary detention and human rights violations. “For over a decade, we have been the most outspoken critics of Interpol, the crime reporting organisation, notorious for corruption and ‘pay to play’ membership. We’ve managed to raise the unfair detentions of Conor Howard and Robert Urwin in Parliament and escalate the issue of Interpol Abuse to policy influencers in Washington DC. After assisting in hundreds of Interpol and Extradition injustices, we are now working to shift policy and make Interpol legally accountable. In 2010, I worked with Australian senators to successfully enshrine human rights provisions into the extradition treaty with the UAE. With a class action in preparation, we expect the climate within Interpol to shift, ultimately leading to further protections against the misuse of Interpol’s databases that result in lengthy and unfair detentions abroad. Interpol Abuse has become such a huge issue that it was necessary to found IPEX (Interpol and Extradition) Reform to fully support this campaign. We are proud to have prevented extraditions to countries like the UAE, Qatar, Saudi, Korea, Russia and Egypt but the battle continues, with Interpol having controversially elected the UAE to their Presidency. IPEX Reform: Home “Outrageously, we have seen everything from a flight attendant arrested from a restaurant in Rome, to a police officer pulled from his car in Cornwall over small credit card debts. We have continued to support expats resolve their debt situations, protecting them from further escalation and from being reported to Interpol. In highlighting these unfair cases, we note the UAE has responded by implementing bankruptcy laws, reducing criminal sentences for financial crimes and now we are seeing that bounced cheques are to be decriminalised except in cases of fraud. In practicality, these changes have failed to protect most expats, but it is heartening to see that there is movement in the right direction. "The Dubai Debt Trap" - The Economist, Dec 2021 “But this pales in comparison to the more heinous crimes that have emerged from Middle Eastern state actors, including the murder in police custody of Lee Bradley Brown. More than ten years ago, I received desperate phone calls from fellow inmates who described his violent death at the hands of police officers and only now, is there a final Inquest into his death where I will give evidence later in the year. Dubai’s government retracted their promise to share CCTV footage with the British government and until now, have not been held to account for his gruesome death. Dubai’s Deadly Cops: Lee Bradley Brown Inquest 2022 “The UAE could get away with anything at this point, and so the torture did not stop. The forced confessions, beatings, rape, electrocutions, hog-tying, freezing conditions, deprivation of water and contact with the outside world. Unbelievably, we saw leaked video footage of a man being repeatedly driven over in the desert, a case which was settled out of court in the US and of course, we saw Princess Latifa’s video testimony of her own imprisonment and torture. “We have heard it all and even as late as 2021, a British national was admitted to hospital with broken bones at the hands of prison guards. The testimonies from victims are heartbreaking. We have continued to raise these abuses to the media, governments and to the United Nations, significantly pressuring the UAE to put an end to the mistreatment of prisoners. “Sadly, torture victim Artur Ligeska died last year after struggling to rebuild his life following his exoneration from fabricated charges against him in Abu Dhabi. Artur told his story in his book and documentaries, leaving a legacy of activism behind him. Artur was a good friend of mine who touched the hearts of many. He is dearly missed. Artur Ligeska - Human Rights Advocate “In 2018, Hervé Jaubert and Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum contacted me from onboard US flagged yacht, Nostromo before they were kidnapped by UAE and Indian military forces. Nothing could have prepared us for this unprecedented and dramatic event. When Latifa called me from the yacht in the middle of the attack, I swung into immediate action, securing her video testimony, raising the abduction to authorities in the UK, UAE, India and the US, and enlisting Queen's Counsel to immediately raise their abduction to the United Nations. “For anyone who followed this case, they will know that the UAE pulled out every dirty trick they could to discredit the story. They released photos of a different Latifa to confuse the media, employed a disinformation campaign against us in an attempt to discredit the source of information, instructed ‘hackers’ and intelligence agencies to target us and of course, recruited help from people like Mary Robinson to try to cover up their crimes. It was high stakes and it was personal. “After significant campaigning, countering UAE smear attempts, lobbying US policy centres and even raising it on mainstream broadcasts like the BBC and Sean Hannity, the United Nations was forced to insist on Latifa’s release, the FBI was exposed for assisting the UAE with White House Press Secretary Psaki deflecting a question on the issue. Princess Haya, who had previously supported Sheikh Mohammed’s stance on Latifa, became entrawled in divorce proceedings with the Dubai ruler, reversing her position and supporting Princess Latifa. Sheikh Mohammed was forced to confront the issue and with Latifa’s newly enlisted cooperation, photographed her in various locations to satisfy the neverending proof of life requests. Jaubert, journalists and I then received letters from a UK law firm, purporting to represent Latifa, requesting silence and privacy. For most, Latifa’s case remains unsolved and though at least it appears she may have made an agreement that is satisfactory to her, most remain sceptical as to her true situation. Following pressure from Detained in Dubai, Mary Robinson issued an apology for her role in supporting the UAE by claiming Latifa was “safe and free”. Princess Haya later received a £500m divorce settlement in British courts. “Following my appearance in ‘Escape from Dubai’, ‘60 Minutes’ and representations to the United Nations and US authorities, Sheikh Mohammed became a controversial figure, leading the Queen of England to seek to avoid public engagements with the Dubai ruler. “Women’s rights in the UAE continue to deserve attention. On the one hand, we can see women in board positions, in sports and government and yet we still have female guardianship and their freedom, it appears, is only by virtue of the fact that a male has permitted it. Sheikha Zeynab released a desperate plea on Instagram as her children were imminently to be removed from her. She was not heard from publicly again and there are certainly concerns for her wellbeing. Emirati woman, Hind Al Balooki dramatically escaped abuse following in Latifa’s footsteps. We also saw the murder of Jane Matthew by her husband. She was hit over the head with a hammer while she lay sleeping in bed. Her family has been outraged that her husband was served with less time than someone who may have bounced a cheque. There has been a history of female rape victims being charged with ‘having sex outside marriage’ but fortunately after many public cases, like that of Alicia Gali and Roxanne Hillier, we have finally seen the decriminalisation of sex outside marriage. That’s not to say that adultery will go unpunished but unmarried couples should no longer be prosecuted for extramarrital sex or co-habitating. “On a regular basis, we still receive calls from desperate women in a male dominated legal system. Child custody issues can be unbelievable and in favour of men, while others have been asked to provide testimony from muslim men that they are good mothers, even when they have a UK issued court order and have had custody for years. This shows just how much improvement is needed before the UAE can be considered a safe place for expats who could fall foul of the law. “Along with the usual ‘offensive behaviour’ charges that have often plagued tourists, the UAE went a step further when they enacted the extremely strict cybercrime laws that were also vague in nature, essentially criminalising almost every visitor to the country. Countless foreigners were arrested in charged with violations ranging from sharing charities on social media to derogatory comments and even for private WhatsApp communications between husband and wife or flatmates. The UAE made it very clear that criticism of the government, the rulers or the country would not be tolerated. Free speech was completely killed and journalists feared they could be jailed for their objective writing. While we managed to secure the freedom of people like Laleh Shahravesh and Scott Richards, without intervention, they would have faced years in prison. Scott Richards was released three weeks after his arrest: UAE Cybercrime Laws “We have seen an increase in locals and expats alike, seeking to profit from arrests by seeking out detainees and promising to negotiate their release or use their influence. Millions of dollars have been scammed by those already victimised by a legal system in need of refurbishment. These scams have appeared to benefit authorities and even police. The extent of the corruption needs to be investigated as it further tarnishes Dubai’s image. “And while the spotlight is usually on the major tourist destination of Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah has tried to place itself as a close competitor with new beach resorts and less restrictive business practice, but it is known as the ‘wild west of the Emirates’ and RAK has not let itself down. Not only did the public case of Billy Barclay’s arrest draw attention to the Emirate, but the ruler and his lawyers and employees have been sued for the torture of foreign nationals within their prison, and for instructing Israeli and Indian intelligence agencies like Bluehawk CI to go after adversaries, including myself. We are working with leading litigation support agencies and top lawyers to seek justice for the victims of Ras Al Khaimah and to expose the corrupt and abusive regime of Sheikh Saud. “The UAE and Israel have had a strong behind the scenes cooperation for some time, recently brought to the surface as part of the Abraham Accords. When the borders were opened to Israeli visitors, it was not long before tourists were arrested for things like ‘offensive behaviour’. Israel was new to the UAE and had not previously reported the past 12 years of petty arrests and it was important I summarised the risks, authoring articles for their most read newspapers. Radha Stirling, Times of Israel Blogs “A common theme over time has been false allegations against businessmen as a means to loot their companies and assets. Not only has this resulted in lengthy and unfair detention or Interpol and extradition proceedings, but it has literally ruined their lives and in many cases, their reputations. The severity of this can not be underestimated and we have ensured clients get the opportunity to fully defend themselves and their reputations through access to the media and extraterritorial litigations. “One of the great rewards that has made us more effective has been the relationships developed with politicians, think tanks, foreign diplomats, embassies and the media. We’ve worked closely with heads of state, foreign secretaries and diplomats to achieve positive outcomes for all concerned. Indeed, the UAE has been open to rectifying injustices and to working with their allies but our media connections have provided us with the incentive to politicians to make representations on behalf of victims. Since Cat Le-Huy’s detention in 2008, our media connections worldwide have been an important part of being able to protect human rights in the Gulf. From the BBC to 60 Minutes, CNN to Fox and the world’s most read media, we have not been able to thank them enough for their ethical coverage of our cases. The Daily Beast and Reuters, for example, have actively assisted us in investigations into authorities and intelligence agencies and to expose criminal acts against us and our clients. “As well as exposing wrongdoing in law enforcement agencies though, we have worked closely with authorities to expose corruption, money laundering and ponzi schemes throughout the Middle East, the United States and Canada, including the notorious Gold AE scam. “And our natural path has led us to help people all over the Middle East and increasingly, internationally, leading us to found Due Process International where we have taken on cases in the US, Papua New Guinea and South America. The Gulf in Justice Podcast was founded just last year and has already interviewed prominent politicians, businessmen and clients and been covered in the media. Increasingly, we have been asked to appear on other Podcasts like the LA Times’ “Convicted” with cybercrime law victim, Nichole Coffel. GulfInjustice Podcast “Perhaps the last year or two have been the most important so far. I have spoken at the Offshore Alert Conference, the Heritage Foundation, Frontiers of Freedom and Skyline, warning and informing investors and influencers of reforms that need to be made in order to safeguard individuals and investors from abuse, as well as preserve a cooperative alliance where belligerent and criminal acts are no longer tolerated. Our work is not only helping individuals on a case by case basis, it’s about future safety and security for governmental relations, as well as individuals. This involves influencing legal changes that promote transparency and accountability through legislatures, political figures and think tanks like Chatham House and Heritage. “The past year saw China’s relations with the UAE expand and take on a sinister element as reports emerged of secret detention facilities in the Emirates built and run by China, for the specific purpose of extrajudicially detaining Chinese dissidents in the country. While the US took a strong stance against the selection of a Chinese national as the president of Interpol, some of the most vocal opponents, such as Senator Ted Cruz, remained silent about the election of the Emirati and accused torturer, Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, to the position. “Our persistent effort to push the UK to increase travel warnings for tourists visiting the UAE gained the support of numerous members of parliament, including Baroness Whitaker, who was so alarmed by the Emirates’ dismal human rights record that she called for Britain to impose sanctions on the UAE. Parliamentary Debate: Should the FCDO increase Travel Warnings to British Citizens heading to Dubai “We have been the leading international voice drawing attention to the endemic abuses of the UAE legal system, rampant human rights violations, and unchecked authoritarianism of the Emirates’ government; bringing an often-reluctant media spotlight to cases of wrongdoing that deeply offend modern sensibilities and Western standards of justice committed in the UAE. Fortunately, after 14 years of campaigning, knowledge of the corruption and abuses of the UAE legal system have become widespread, which led recently to the EU Parliament voting to boycott the ongoing Dubai Expo. “Amidst the growing pressure driven by our work, the UAE last year revamped some of their drug laws. The cases of American Peter Clark, Britons Andy Neal and Billy Hood, which we brought to the public eye, prompted the Emirates to modify sentencing in drug cases of foreign nationals to allow deportation instead of imprisonment. Clark, Neal, and Hood were all granted release following our intensive campaigns for their freedom. New UAE drug law: Treatment for first-time offenders; deportation, tougher penalties clarified “Our long-time campaign to increase the responsiveness and transparency of the FCDO in its approach to citizens wrongfully detained in the UAE saw the convening of a parliamentary debate the FCDO. We provided MPs with comprehensive reports detailing the many failures of the Foreign Office in handling the dilemmas faced by British citizens in the Gulf. “American citizen Ms Jeffries was finally released from an unjust sentence in Dubai from a case that smacked of racism and a vindictive professional grudge; we liaised with several American politicians, diplomats and activists, consular officials and UAE authorities to press for her freedom. “There are thousands of expats though, who are stuck in limbo in Dubai and many of them have lost faith that they will ever get back home. Former intelligence officer Hervé Jaubert was not the only successful escape story. A number of brave foreigners have managed to cross borders to safety, while others haven't been so lucky, especially in times of heightened security and surveillance. Sadly, Ex Grenadier Guardsman Robin Berlyn died while trying to cross the border to Iran. We will soon tell his story. EXCLUSIVE: Former Grenadier Guardsman trapped in Dubai after being jailed over fake cheque scam tries to flee by swimming two miles across Persian Gulf “The case of our client UK businessman Albert Douglas has shocked and outraged the British public. The stories of his abuse and torture, and his baseless detention has spurred multiple protests across Great Britain, including at the House of Parliament and in front of Dubai’s biggest luxury property expo in Knightsbridge. Under pressure from the ongoing campaign for his release, UAE authorities have committed to holding a review of Albert’s medical condition to consider the option of sending him home. “While we have achieved many notable successes over the years, and 2021 saw great progress in global awareness about the dangers posed by the UAE to not only foreigners inside the country, but even to citizens in their home countries and around the world; we are also seeing the belligerence and lawlessness of the UAE intensify, as well as the expansion of their reach and influence. We will be working harder than ever in 2022 to defend the rights of foreign nationals falsely accused and wrongfully detained in the Gulf and to address policy issues relating to the engagement of Western countries with the Emirates and broader region. “We are truly grateful for all of our supporters, clients and to our amazing team”. Evil under the Dubai sun: Beneath the glamorous facade beloved of celebrity influencers and British holidaymakers, Dubai has a dark secret of medieval injustice... and the princess held hostage is only the start, writes GUY ADAMS Detained in Dubai: http://www.detainedindubai.org Detained in Doha: https://www.detainedindoha.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

The BBC Programme has gone out of its way to promote Dubai to tourists and investors in spite of serious human rights violations and torture against British citizens and while MP’s call on increased travel warnings to nationals after declaring the UAE “unsafe”. Radha Stirling, founder of 14 year old human rights organisation Detained in Dubai sheds light on the issue, “Inside Dubai is a representation of every marketing endeavour made by the UAE to lure investment and tourism dollars from the UK over recent decades, and while the programme portrays Dubai as a playground for the rich, it fails to balance that against the very real risks posed to investors and visitors. In fact, the super wealthy have been targeted by experienced locals and even royals over the years with many of them jailed so that their bank accounts and holdings can be looted by Sheikhs and Emiratis who have seen them as fair game. Throughout the series, we hear the message ‘you must be respectful of the laws and culture and you will thrive’. Tourists have time and time again fallen foul of a system that jails foreigners who are the victims of wrongful accusations. Even where there is no evidence of their crimes, they are convicted through a system where evidence is irrelevant and trials last 15 minutes. This is not about ‘obeying the laws’ or ‘respecting the culture’ but about systemic forced confessions, wrongful imprisonments and grave human rights violations. Baroness Whitaker has advised the Foreign Office to increase travel warnings, noting the UAE is ‘unsafe to British citizens’ even when following the letter of the law. Baroness & MP call for increased travel warnings to UAE and Sanctions Over 14 years, we have helped more than 17,000 victims of injustice, where many of them have been forced to confess to crimes they haven’t committed and only after suffering lengthy detention, have they been exonerated. A selection of MP’s have called for increased travel warnings to British citizens and the European Parliament voted to boycott Dubai’s Expo over serious human rights concerns. Meanwhile, the UAE has invested significant funds into lobbying British politicians, think tanks and influential journalists to promote their image. This BBC programme appears to be their latest successful endeavour and will undoubtedly lead to further human rights violations against British citizens.” Dubai Expo, UAE influence puts Britons like Billy Hood, at risk Over the years, Detained in Dubai has highlighted numerous cases of injustice to the media. Jamie Harron was arrested after accidentally brushing past a man at a busy bar, Billy Barclay for a counterfeit £20 note, Laleh Shahravesh over a private Facebook post made from within the United Kingdom, but countless others have been falsely accused of a crimes, forced to confess and detained in the country. The motivation behind these egregious situations is vast and varied, including everything from extortion attempts to fraud or simple spite. Affluent investors have found themselves the targets of complex frauds by local businessmen, trade partners and Sheikhs who have the ‘wasta’ to misuse police and courts for the purpose of apprehending their victims’ cash and assets, with no regard whatsoever for their victim who has usually been conveniently jailed. Billy Hood, a young footballer was jailed over CBD vape oil that was left in his car by a visiting friend. He now faces ten years in prison over a crime he did not commit. His mother, Breda Guckion, has told of the pain she experienced, knowing that she encouraged him to go to Dubai. “I had no idea that someone like Billy, whose drug tests returned negative, could end up in prison for as long as he has. They forced him to confess, tasered and beat him. How can a series promote the country to British citizens in the midst of what is going on with Billy? Billy has been begging to be seen by a doctor but nobody is helping him. Then, I switch on the tv and see this series glorifying Dubai. It’s absurd. They keep saying ‘if you follow the rules you will be ok’ but we know full well that this is the lie that Dubai has perpetuated for years. It’s why Billy went there, because of these same lies”. Gulf in Justice Podcast with Billy Hood and Albert Douglas's families: Albert Douglas, a British grandfather, is currently in prison over a bounced cheque that has been forensically proven, he did not write. His son Wolfgang was disappointed the series would cause more people to end up in the same situation as his dad, “My father was targeted because he was perceived as wealthy. He drove Rolls Royces and had a successful business. He was seen as a target by locals and expats who wanted to milk him dry, assuring him he will remain in prison until he pays. This is just plain extortion but it happens all the time. We even had a Sheikh ask us for hundreds of thousands of pounds for his freedom, but they just take the money. There are dozens of fraudsters waiting outside of police stations to prey on people like my father and the police are cashing in too. It’s completely corrupt. British grandfather jailed in Dubai for crimes he claims he didn’t commit says he has witnessed suicides and rape by inmates and been forced to drink from communal toilet “My father loved Dubai, that is, until he was falsely arrested, beaten and tortured by prison guards and convicted of writing a cheque he never wrote. My father has had to undergo surgery for his broken bones, caused by prison guards. He has multiple surgeries still to go and we are desperate for him to return to the UK so he can be cared for locally. It’s outrageous that Sheikh Mohammed was asking my father to make a fake propaganda video saying ‘Dubai prison is good’, but that is exactly what Inside Dubai is, a propaganda video.” “Sheikh Mohammed has been a controversial figure in recent years”, reflected Ms Stirling, “Princess Latifa’s escape, attacking a US yacht in international waters, hacking lawyers and journalists, organisations and royals, kidnapping Shamsa, the high profile divorce proceedings with Princess Haya and the memorable allegations of torture and abuse has tainted our perceptions of the Dubai ruler. Inside Dubai characters portray how loved and admired he is, showing off three of his books and talking about what a brilliant ruler he is. The saga of Dubai’s Princess Latifa, who tried and failed to win her freedom from her ‘evil’ father, is set to hit the US courts “The local culture is portrayed throughout as supporting women’s rights, highlighting female achievements but does nothing to cover the many Emirati women who have fled the country including the ruler's own daughters who were covered in the BBC’s ‘Escape from Dubai’, testifying that they were ‘locked up’ with no rights. The fact is, male guardianship still exists in the UAE and many expats have fallen foul of them when spouses vindictively exploit Sharia based laws. “The UAE has clearly sanctioned this programme, as they have with Housewives of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed needed to repair his reputation and the city needed to attract more income. Inside Dubai is a perfect public relations stunt but unfortunately, without that balance, British citizens will continue to be lured into a false sense of security that they are safe ‘so long as you follow the law’. “The UAE has invested significant lobbying into the UK. This has included politicians, influential journalists, policy centres and one of their targets has been the BBC. “While the show will be entertaining for many, there should be some sensitivity towards viewers who have been unfairly imprisoned, tortured and even killed in Dubai custody. The Inquest into the death of Lee Bradley Brown is scheduled in the coming months and sadly, Robyn Berlin died last year after giving up hope of ever being allowed to leave the UAE. It was alleged the former Grenadier Guardsman died of dehydration when trying to flee the country. There is an Inquest into his death this year. Albert Douglas is still living in prison with fractured bones and families are dying to have their loved ones returned to them. Dubai’s Deadly Cops: Lee Bradley Brown Inquest 2022 “There needs to be discussion over the sense of responsibility that production agencies have. There is no doubt that shows like these will encourage people to move to or visit Dubai and there is no doubt that human rights violations will continue to occur.” The UAE welcomes foreign capital, it lures investors, but provides no protections, no systemic safeguards, and enthusiastically colludes with locals to divest foreigners of their rights. It is time for investors to learn the lesson that, if you are a foreigner, success in the UAE only makes you more vulnerable. Detained in Dubai have dealt with innumerable cases over the past decade and some of the public ones have included; Australians Matt Joyce and Marcus Lee, British citizens Safi Qarashi and Mohammed Haddad, Canadian André Gauthier, Reda Boulahdid, Michael Smith, and Ryan Cornelius, The sheer number is concerning and should be a red alert to the business and investment community whom we are strongly discouraging from continuing to bring their skills, resources and capital to the UAE as long as the business culture and legal environment remains so disastrously risky. 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

Stay Free & Be Free this 2022 - Happy New Year! We are delighted to wish you all a Happy New Year and our best wishes, luck and blessings for this 2022. For those of you in prison, we wish for and seek your freedom this coming year, for you to be reunited with your families in glorious peace. For those on travel bans, Interpol or fighting for justice on the outside, we are there with you and wish you every success. Thank you to our fans for your undying support, encouragement and appreciation. This means the world to us. Thank you to the diplomats, politicians and members of the press who support our organisation. We will fully update you on the past year’s achievements on our anniversary this January. Enjoy your New Year. Take life by the horns. Go out, have fun and most importantly, Stay Free. With much love and appreciation from the team @DetainedinDubai Detained in Dubai: http://www.detainedindubai.org Detained in Doha: https://www.detainedindoha.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

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.