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Danish citizen successfully removed from Interpol. A Danish citizen who was scammed out of $30,000 in the UAE and subjected to an abusive Red Notice as part of an extortion scheme, has had his name successfully removed from the Interpol database by Radha Stirling and Detained in Dubai. “This was a particularly outrageous case,” Stirling said, “Our client hired an attorney in the UAE to help collect debts he was owed; but instead of carrying out the work for which he had been paid $30,000, the attorney forged a document claiming my client owed him AED 13 million. He filed a police case, and proceeded to use the Power of Attorney granted to him by my client to have an associate plead guilty to fraud on my client’s behalf – all after he had already left the UAE.” Stirling, who has long been the leading critic of Interpol abuse, and is the founder of Interpol & Extradition Reform (IPEX), explained that the Danish national found himself subjected to a Red Notice by the international policing organisation at the behest of the UAE, “With the fraudulent confession made by this serial scamster in my client’s name, the court convicted him, and requested an Interpol Red Notice against him to seek his extradition. In Summer of last year, he was pulled over in a routine traffic stop by police in Denmark, only to discover that he was listed as an international fugitive by the UAE. He was forced to undergo extradition proceedings, which finally ended with Danish authorities dismissing the Red Notice; yet his Interpol listing remained, making international travel impossible.” ‘Denmark Faces Human Rights Issues over UAE Extradition Treaty’ says Expert Due Process Newsroom & Media Centre The Dane then contacted Detained in Dubai, which boasts a 100% success rate in the removal of wrongful Interpol listings. “We have well over a decade of experience combatting Interpol abuse, particularly that committed by the Gulf States,” Stirling said, “Countries like the UAE and Qatar are among the world’s top abusers of the data collection system; they habitually weaponise Red Notices as devices to extort money, harass, intimidate and threaten foreigners, and to affect a de facto expansion of their own jurisdiction. Our client in this case was fortunate to have discovered the Red Notice while in his home country; if he had been detained over the listing in any number of other jurisdictions, he would have likely been extradited and would be in an Emirati prison today for a crime he didn’t commit.” Interpol Red Notice Abuse - Expert Radha Stirling deletes another two Interpol Red Notices in January Due Process Newsroom & Media Centre Stirling cautions tourists, expats, and investors who travel to the Gulf to be aware of the dangers, “These are not countries with independent judiciaries, and due process is abysmally below global norms. As we saw in this case, it is disturbingly easy to falsify documents, level baseless allegations, and get convictions without evidence. Even mundane financial disputes can lead to a criminal case and an Interpol listing, sometimes without the individual ever knowing about it. The UAE and all of the Gulf States allow convictions in absentia, and accusations can be made against a person even when they are not in the country. This is why we strongly advise anyone visiting the UAE, or even anyone who ever has visited the UAE, to run a police check on their name and an Interpol database search to ensure that no cases exist without their knowledge. Unfortunately, the Interpol website does not provide complete listings, and this is just another aspect of that organisation’s lack of transparency which we have been lobbying to change. “A case like that of our recent client should never have been accepted by Interpol, but once they list a name, it is tremendously difficult to get it removed. Having a Red Notice severely restricts a person’s freedom of movement, and stigmatises them as if they are fugitives from justice. There is reputational damage, and often there can be devastating financial consequences resulting from an Interpol listing; yet Interpol continues to allow persistent abusers like the UAE to request Notices without cause, and a person can be listed in a matter of minutes, while disputing a listing can take months. We are just glad that our experience and expertise were able to resolve this matter; it is one of the best parts of our job when we get to celebrate with a client the successful resolution to their issues and congratulate them for their newfound freedom from an unjust Interpol listing.” BBC Scotland Conor Howard extradition to Qatar from Greece with Radha Stirling & Kenny MacAskill MP Home | IPEX Reform | Interpol & Extradition Reform, Expert Witness, Interpol Removal, Crisis Management, Legislative & Government Advisory 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

A British crypto expert faces extradition from Saudi to the US but lawyers and academics claim this would be a violation of international law as it impinges on the sovereignty of Britain. The US has increasingly sought to apply its own laws universally with increasing vigour. Just a short while ago, it was concerning when countries like Australia wanted to charge citizens with conduct in another country. The implications at the time were extremely concerning. Not only were people suddenly subject to the laws of the country they were visiting, but they were also subject to their own country’s laws. Although there was significant concern about the universal application of a country’s laws, the public was subdued with promises that it would just get “the real baddies, mostly child abusers”. Fast forward a couple of decades and we are seeing the very “slippery slope” analysts foresaw in the early days. Once the precedent for extraterritorial laws was accepted and experimented with, it didn’t take long for those powers and laws to be expanded. The US has been the worst offender. The Department of Justice (DOJ) decided to indict in absentia British national Christopher Emms alleging that he violated US sanctions against North Korea when he visited the country to attend a cryptocurrency conference that another US citizen attended. The 30 year old crypto expert, an advisor to British regulators and a frequent speaker, violated no British laws nor international laws when he attended the conference, but the DOJ listed Emms on Interpol’s Red Notice database during his visit to Saudi and has applied for his extradition under the IEEPA, a statute that specifies it only applies to “US persons”. US seeks extradition of British national over cryptocurrency conference: The case of Christopher Emms. Due Process Newsroom & Media Centre “After consultation with lawyers in the UK, Saudi and the US”, extradition expert Radha Stirling who is assisting Emms explains, “we are disappointed the US would challenge the sovereignty of the United Kingdom in seeking the extradition of a British citizen who has not violated any British or international laws. “If Saudi Arabia were to agree to the extradition request, they would also be in violation of international law and UN principles respecting sovereignty. The US has absolutely no right to apply their laws universally to foreign nationals and expect countries to surrender them. If Saudi and the UK do not stand up to this expansionist authoritarian mindset, they better start teaching US law at British schools”. At the time of the conference, the US President and his advisors had visited North Korea and were seeking to strengthen their relationship and perhaps even forge a friendship. “It was a different time”, Mr Emms recalled “the British foreign office saw no issues with citizens attending the conference and I made sure to check the advice in advance”. Stirling has called on the British government to request the dismissal of the indictment and extradition request, to preserve UK sovereignty, uphold international law and protect citizens against state harassment and legal abuse. Chris speaking at the World Blockchain Forum in Dubai 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

Disgraced Saudi Prince, Turki bin Abdullah; now in prison for corruption; organised a secretive meeting at a luxury oasis in the desert 2 hours outside Riyadh in 2016, in what is suspected to have been a move to recruit support for a possible coup against the newly anointed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; popularly referred to as MBS. The ornate resort was built exclusively for this purpose, but the contractors tasked with its construction were cheated out of payment, and subsequently persecuted for the sensitive knowledge they possess about the project. The Dubai based company established by a US resident, SDW Events LLC, was enlisted to design and build the “Tuwaiq Oasis” to host a billionaires investment conference allegedly to bolster Prince Turki bin Abdullah in his rivalry with MBS. The company was given a suspiciously tight and unrealistic deadline for the project’s completion – indicating that Turki’s plans were urgent and time-sensitive. The prince was already under investigation for using infrastructure projects to line his pockets, and MBS had made clear that he was committed to wage an unforgiving campaign against corruption in the country. Observers note that Turki likely realised that if he was going to make a move against MBS, he had to do it fast. However, in an apparent attempt to disguise his involvement, the Tuwaiq Oasis project was managed through multiple buffer companies and individuals to distance Turki from the billionaires recruitment event, which complicated construction. The contractors faced multiple obstacles and delays, and were frequently forced to pay suppliers and workers from their own funds; never to be reimbursed. Ultimately, the Rare 10 meeting was held on schedule, with the who’s who of America’s super-rich in attendance. But following the event, the contractors, still awaiting payment, were ostracised by Turki and his intermediaries. Within months, Prince Turki was one of 11 Saudi royals detained under house arrest in the Riyadh Ritz Carlton, and charged with corruption. When it appeared that the Tuwaiq Oasis contractors might be summoned to testify about the shadowy gathering of billionaires he had hosted, Turki had the UAE fabricate a case against the SDW Events LLC and got them listed on Interpol; thereby both preventing them from entering Saudi Arabia as witnesses, and ensuring that he would never have to pay them the millions he owed. Now an explosive lawsuit has been filed on their behalf which will bring to light the full extent of Prince Turki’s conspiratorial machinations. The attendees of the Rare 10 event might have believed they were establishing a profitable partnership with a potential rising star of Saudi Arabia, “But we are going to ensure they’re aware that the Tuwaiq event has left a string of foreigners at risk of imprisonment and extradition for no other reasons than that the Saudis didn’t ‘feel like’ paying, and because Prince Turki doesn’t want them to be heard”, says US attorney Dr Jonathan Levy who is representing SDW Events LLC. “Our client undertook a massive project with unrealistic timelines on the contracted agreement they would be paid and would therefore be able to pay their own suppliers and contractors. Instead, his trust was abused and quite unbelievably, he was wrongfully listed on the Interpol Red Notice database so the Saudis could deprive them of the 20+ million owed; and so that Prince Turki could prevent his testimony in court. If this is the way business in Saudi is going to be played, investors need to be cautioned that their reputations and livelihoods are on the line. American businessmen need to know that their support of Saudi Arabia will inevitably lead to human rights violations against their fellow countrymen. KSA has intimated that they intend to clamp down on corruption and the Tuwaiq Oasis scandal is where they should start”. Levy is set to raise the scandal with KSA representatives in Washington, DC. “Dealing with high-ranking members of elite or royal families in the Gulf can be extremely treacherous,” says Radha Stirling, founder and CEO of Detained in Dubai and Due Process International, “Foreigners are often unfamiliar with the internal politics and rivalries at play when they enter into contracts with big local players in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or Qatar. They believe such agreements are inherently beneficial because they connect them to the most powerful people in the region; but they do not consider that this power often allows these players to operate above the law, and they are able to breach contracts, expropriate money, refuse payment, seize ownership of companies and projects, and persecute foreigners with impunity. “This is particularly risky when you add the fraught dynamics of factional politics into the mix. We have seen vicious campaigns around contests for the throne in emirates like Ras Al Khaimah, for example, the aftermath of which resulted in a ruthless purge of high-profile business leaders, executives and investors; asset seizures, false imprisonments, Interpol abuse, and even severe human rights violations including torture.” Stirling, who also heads IPEX, an organisation dedicated to Interpol reform, explains that Gulf countries habitually use Red Notices as weapons against political critics and the financial victims of unscrupulous local partners, “It is unsurprising that Prince Turki and his cohorts would instigate an Interpol listing against the Tuwaiq contractors; this is the modus operandi of Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and the governments and powerful families in the region. Any investor or professional who has been wronged by a local sponsor or business partner can expect to have a false case registered against them and Red Notice issued, whether it be to extort money from them, shift blame, intimidate, or otherwise neutralise any attempt they might make to pursue justice. “In this case, Prince Turki clearly wanted to cut all ties with the Tuwaiq Oasis project and could not be seen financing such an elaborate event that looked very much like a strategic move against MBS; particularly when he was already suspected of corruption. By having the head of SDW Events listed on Interpol, he believed he could not only guarantee that he would never have to pay for the project, but also that no one from SDW could testify about the Rare 10 meeting itself, which could dramatically increase the severity of the charges against him.” Disgraced Saudi Prince Convened Meeting of Billionaires Prior to His Arrest DUE PROCESS INTERNATIONAL 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 US has issued an Interpol Red Notice against Chris Emms for allegedly violating US sanctions against North Korea (DPRK). Emms is currently held in Saudi Arabia as he fights against the US extradition request. The US has cast a wide net over blockchain professionals in an attempt to make an example of them but in doing so, has displayed what can only be described as “State Harassment”. 30 year old Crypto expert Chris Emms, from Reigate, Surrey, has found himself stuck in Saudi Arabia, fighting extradition to the United States who have accused him of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) despite not being a “US person” and thus not subject to the legislation. After the Julian Assange case, the US has been emboldened to further push for the extraterritorial application of US laws to foreign nationals even where legislation specifically only applies to Americans. Once a keen theatre director, Emms was drawn to technology early on and began his career heading up sales for the first ever crypto debit card issuer. Emms then built TokenKey, an innovative company offering off the shelf Initial Coin Offering (ICO) solutions, and became a highly sought after expert, advisor and consultant to governments, including Her Majesty’s. Emms' notoriety landed him a leading position as head of partnerships and business development with Bitcoin.com, working directly for owner Roger Ver. The blockchain expert has been a prominent speaker on regulatory issues and a broker and consultant for companies with blockchain and web3. The highly motivated entrepreneur went on to open the first ever Kosher food distribution company in the Gulf, significantly investing into the region and giving him the opportunity to play a crucial role in the Abraham Accords, working and educating businesses in the GCC on Jewish customs and relations alongside the UAE Israel Business Council. “In 2018, I was travelling frequently and presenting all over the world almost every other week”, explains Chris. “When Spanish national Alejandro Cao de Benos asked me to go to North Korea for another conference, I checked the FCDO travel advice for North Korea which indicated no issues and so I agreed to attend. With Trump’s meetings, it also appeared the relationship between the countries was improving. It was an uneventful few days with like minded people, just like any other.” Virgil Griffith was supposed to be the only speaker but they ran out of content to cover the two days and began asking other attendees to fill in the gaps. “I was asked to speak briefly about topics I have spoken about publicly before, the content was nothing new or secret and I had absolutely no idea that I could ever be accused of any wrongdoing”. Mr Cao De Benos asked Emms to enquire if other industry peers would be interested in attending and listed Emms’ name on the conference website as a speaker. Emms commented “I did not see any issue with this. “I had checked whether there were any restrictions on me as a British citizen and there were none”. Emms attended the event and was asked to speak on the spot, along with US citizen Virgil Griffith and others whom he had not met until the first day of the conference. On the day of arrival though, all attendees had their belongings rigorously searched and Argentinian POAP founder, Patricio Worthalter, was accused of possessing a pornographic video on his laptop. This put the whole group on edge whose passports were confiscated as a result. They feared a small step out of line could lead to their detention. From that moment on, attendees were very aware of their language and conduct during the trip, ensuring not to inadvertently offend the hosts. Emms described the visit as a sort of “tourist propaganda event” where attendees were escorted to schools and museums with local guides. They weren’t allowed to interact with North Koreans and other than the guided tours, they were not even allowed to leave the confines of their hotel. In preparation, Mr Cao de Benos provided them with a number of documents and asked the speakers to incorporate the content that was obtained from publicly available google searches. Mr Cao de Benos had mistakenly listed Emms as an organiser of the event but Emms had no role as an organiser at all and he was not consulted or asked to be included on the website.. Emms confirmed, “I did not perform any organisation of the event, I did not have authority to do so and was careful not to do so”. Emms spoke at the conference, covering information that can be found freely on the internet to which North Koreans have access to. “We were even shown libraries where this information could be accessed”, recalls Emms. Emms provided no information that could have helped the government evade US sanctions against them and no information that was secret nor unavailable on Google. Emms was relieved when the conference he branded “uneventful and boring” was over. He returned to the UK later that month but was “shocked” to be taken aside on arrival and questioned in relation to the conference. He dutifully cooperated but it bothered him. Wanting to ensure there would be no further issues, he telephoned the British Intelligence Services hotline to clarify anything that was of interest to them, but they were not interested in pursuing the matter. Emms put the matter to rest and continued with his business and travels until he was made aware that another speaker in November 2019, Ethereum founder Mr Virgil Griffith, had been arrested. Griffith was accused of violating the IEEPA by providing information to North Korea. Griffith professed his innocence, but was under enormous pressure to agree to a plea bargain in return for a reduced sentence. Given his previous interactions with British authorities, Emms thought it prudent to engage a US representative to contact authorities on his behalf to see whether they had flagged any issues. They had no interest in liaising until 2021 when it became clear they were building a case against him. Emms was aghast. It seemed impossible. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Why would he be prosecuted by the US when he had not violated any British or international laws? He wasn’t a US citizen or US person. How could this be? Emms was not going to surrender to the US under these circumstances but informed the British authorities that he would happily cooperate with them or surrender himself in the event that they felt he had committed a crime. “You couldn’t ask for a more reasonable and cooperative subject”, said Radha Stirling, who is representing Mr Emms. “I could never advise anyone to surrender to a foreign jurisdiction that has no legal authority to prosecute them. This would be endorsing an overreach of powers and the extraterritorial application of laws to foreign nationals who are not subject to them. If another country like China or Russia attempted to do this to a British citizen, we would be outraged. We can not accept double standards simply because it’s America, for that would set a dangerous precedent”. Comforted that the UK was satisfied Emms had not violated any laws, he continued life as normal, but he didn’t know the US often goes to extreme measures to pursue targets. He expected they would consider him of trivial interest. Emms did not count on Interpol being used as a mechanism to secure him abroad, so when he travelled to Saudi Arabia for the LEAP tech conference, he had expected to be in and out in a matter of days but then his nightmare began. When Emms checked in for his return flight on the 4th of February 2022, his passport raised an alert and he was taken to the airport detention facility. He was held in a cell with around fifty other people before being cuffed and shackled and taken to an interrogation centre where he was put in front of two prosecutors. Emms was told the US had requested his extradition and asked whether he would agree to surrender or not. Terrified by the news and not knowing what would happen next, Emms promptly declined the offer and was given bail. His family and friends expected the worst, telling Stirling “It’s unimaginable that anyone could treat Chris like a criminal when all he’s done is attend a seminar. Chris is the gentlest and most loving person anyone could hope for in their lives. He has always been studious and ethical. Even the British government respects and seeks his expertise and he’s never violated any law, ever. What he and we are going through is the worst stress of our lives. It would be a crime against humanity for America to be able to just take our loved ones and plonk them in jails notorious for human rights violations when the laws don’t even apply in the UK! I can’t believe it and I pray for the US to drop any case against Chris. Don’t put him through this. The British government needs to stand up for its people. We are not American, we are British and if we have committed no crime in Britain or under international law, how can the UK allow the US to do this?” Emms and his supporters intends to lobby the government to help prevent the extraterritorial enforcement of US law against British citizens. Mr Emms has now been held in Saudi for nearly three months at significant expense and under extremely stressful conditions. Since hiring US lawyers, Emms has spent his life savings on lawyers with bills amounting to hundreds of thousands. Criminal investigations and extradition proceedings are not cheap. IPEX Reform founder, Radha Stirling says “sometimes governments issue Interpol warrants purely to harass, punish, extort or pressure victims. This kind of ‘Interpol Abuse’ is outrageous. The FBI is fully aware that the IEEPA does not apply to non-US persons, but has reported him to Interpol with the flimsiest of evidence I’ve ever seen. If they are aware the Act does not apply to him, why have they reported him to Interpol? It can only be described as State harassment. They ‘persuaded’ a reluctant Virgil Griffith to enter a guilty plea and they want another body in the grave. This is America’s opportunity to send a message to crypto professionals that “we can get you anywhere”. It’s highly suspicious that the Interpol Red Notice only came to light while Chris was in Saudi Arabia. We have to consider that they may have gone jurisdiction shopping and wanted him held in Saudi rather than the UK as this would put Chris at a disadvantage.” Foreign nationals have been charged under the IEEPA but they have been detained in the US and ended up pleading guilty to ensure they didn’t risk a life sentence. No foreign national has been successfully prosecuted under this Act. American ‘justice’ relies largely on intimidation. US authorities finally sent a communication to Saudi Arabia outlining the allegations against Emms. The US accused him of violating the IEEPA by: Accusation 1: Supplying visa advice to Virgil Griffith; Emms did not give visa advice to Virgil Griffith. Emms met Griffith at the event and was in no way involved with encouraging him to attend the event or organising his attendance. Accusation 2: Organising the Pyongyang event; Emms did not organise the event and nor did he have any authority to do so. Emms did not act in any way that could be construed as organising the event. The event was organised by DPRK and their Spanish representative. Accusation 3: Providing information to DPRK that would assist in circumventing sanctions, specifically showing a whiteboard drawing that displayed a smiley face with “no sanctions” written there. Emms provided only information already available in the public domain and that he had previously given at other conferences. There was nothing new or illicit about his content and he was not responsible for the whiteboard drawing that the US has included as their “evidence”. It is not even his writing but that of Griffith’s which they have already presented as evidence against him. The charges are essentially bogus and a far reach for the FBI. “If only the FBI went to such extents when US yacht Nostromo was attacked and US citizens kidnapped”, commented Stirling who has been surprised at the FBI’s tenacity in persecuting crypto professionals. Emms has taken the time in Saudi to go over the Pyongyang conference again and again. “We were not treated as friends of North Korea. Our passports were confiscated and before leaving, I underwent an interrogation and had a full room search. It wasn’t pleasant. If I have violated the laws of the United Kingdom, I am more than willing to admit guilt and face the consequences of my actions. However, after having in-depth conversations with officials and legal counsel in the US, Saudi and the UK, I am confident I’m not guilty of any crime of which the US has accused me and I will be fighting for justice. Emms has made it abundantly clear that he was not associated with Griffith, was not an organiser, “co-conspirator” or advisor. Emms was not aware of Griffith’s conduct prior to the conference nor about any of his apparent attempts to engage in business with North Korea. “This is not a matter that I in any way condone should he not have permission from the relevant authorities”. Family and friends of Chris told Stirling “Chris has used his knowledge to help the church increase transparency, harnessing the power of blockchain to empower the poor in developing worlds. He’s always been actively involved in the community and encouraged respect and diversity. That’s why he did so well with the Abraham Accords too. He won’t plead guilty to supporting the Korean regime. As tempting as it is when you are afraid, it’s never the right thing to do. He believes in fairness and transparency and that doesn’t include allowing yourself to be bullied, even if it is by the United States of America”. Stirling intends to fight the charges all the way, “Authorities threaten and intimidate victims into guilty pleas and promise lighter sentences and better prison conditions. These are not the indicators of a fair judiciary, these are issues that we criticise regularly in countries like the UAE, China and Russia. It is disappointing to see these authoritarian patterns in Western nations and right there in New York. “We will rigorously fight against extradition.” Detained in Dubai: http://www.detainedindubai.org Detained in Doha: https://www.detainedindoha.org Radha Stirling: http:///www.radhastirling.com IPEX: Interpol & Extradition Reform: https://www.ipexreform.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

Due Process International vows to end the ruthless persecution of crypto professionals who are forced to enter guilty pleas after unconscionable harassment. The United States government continues to target individuals involved in the cryptocurrency development, business and education sectors, casting a wide net over industry professionals and using harassment and intimidation to cause victims to plead guilty and provide witness statements against other industry professionals. With the threat of hefty sentences, prosecutors hope their targets will plead guilty to crimes they haven’t even committed in return for lesser sentences. Due Process International is representing one such client who is not even subject to US law, is not a US person or citizen and did not violate any law in their own country. Yet, the US has misused Interpol’s database to issue a Red Notice against him, hoping that he will be intimidated enough to provide testimony against an alleged co-conspirator that he incidentally met only once at a crypto conference, along with dozens of others. “Abusing Interpol’s membership is not uncommon”, says Interpol & Extradition Expert Radha Stirling, “but when we speak of Interpol Abuse, we are usually condemning countries like the UAE, Saudi, Qatar, China, Russia, Korea and Venezuela. There is an initiative in DC to hold Interpol legally accountable for allowing the continued wrongful reporting of individuals, given the human rights violations that victims are subjected to such as wrongful imprisonment abroad. If the US is actively misusing the database themselves to harass and extort victims, we are going to see opposition to any accountability movements in the States”. The sentencing discrepancies for crypto related prosecutions have been outrageous as we clearly see in the case of then 26 year old tech entrepreneur, Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht created an exchange platform called ‘Silk Road’ and was sentenced to two life sentences without parole because some customers used the tool to pay for illegal goods. Ulbricht finally spoke out about his incredible case: Ethereum researcher Virgil Griffith entered a guilty plea in New York for violating sanctions after attending a conference in North Korea. Griffith had maintained his innocence up until September last year when he chose to plead guilty after undoubtedly succumbing to pressure from lawyers and prosecutors. Griffith is hoping for a reduced sentence, but there is significant industry concern that he was subjected to undue influence. His sentencing will be announced soon. Why Did Virgil Griffith Plead Guilty? Stirling continued, “What has been clear in many cases is that the US system will unscrupulously charge and threaten to prosecute industry professionals with the flimsiest of evidence insufficient for a conviction but when faced with life imprisonment in abysmal conditions while being offered a plea bargain, most lawyers will recommend their innocent client take the deal. Prosecutors are relying on this, charging victims with very serious and inappropriate crimes, hoping they will plead guilty so the prosecutor gets an easy win and a nice promotion. This kind of harassment has seen victims essentially confess to crimes they haven’t committed which in turn encourages the practice to continue. We’ve all seen A Few Good Men and while Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee starts out looking for easy plea deals, he eventually sees that justice should not be seeking to ‘close cases’ but should be seeking the truth. “It is clear that industry professionals are being maliciously targeted by the US and other governments and that there is very little support. Their reputations have been slandered, their assets looted and they've been harassed using the corrupt Interpol organisation. Interpol is now under the direction of the United Arab Emirates General Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi who has been accused of human rights abuses and torture, further diminishing the organisation’s credibility. “The United States seeks to intimidate small fish into providing testimony, even if false, against big fish.” Due Process International (DPI) is collating evidence to assist victims facing unfair trials, wrongful prosecution and imprisonment, and to end this unconscionable state ordained conduct. “The State relies upon individuals feeling they’re on their own, separated from any alliance so they can go in for the kill. That’s going to end”, said Due Process International CEO, Radha Stirling. Justice Department Installs New FBI Crypto Crime Unit - WSJ Buterin Asks Court for Leniency in Upcoming Sentencing of Virgil Griffith About Radha Stirling Radha Stirling founded Detained in Dubai and Due Process International in 2008 and has since helped and advised in more than 17,000 cases of injustice. Expert Witness Stirling is the founder of IPEX (Interpol & Extradition) Reform, a civil and criminal justice specialist, legislative, investment risk, business and policy advisor to the public and private sectors, speaker and host of the Gulf in Justice Podcast, covering regional issues in depth. 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

Denmark has signed an extradition treaty with the UAE, primarily to seek hedge fund trader Sanjay Shah, who has been sheltering in Dubai. But the treaty “comes at a price”, says extradition defence and Interpol expert, Radha Stirling. “When a country sees a target they want to extradite, they can be all too keen to sign on the dotted line without any consideration of what this may mean for their own citizens”, explains Stirling, who founded the organisation IPEX Reform to fight Interpol abuse. “Australia went through the same process a decade ago but we managed to lobby Parliament to ensure human rights provisions were inserted into the treaty. Danish courts will now need to ensure they offer the equivalent protection to those the UAE may seek to extradite”. Home | IPEX Reform Interpol & Extradition Reform, Expert Witness, Interpol Removal, Crisis Management, Legislative & Government Advisory Denmark has hunted down and arrested a number of Danish and European citizens at the request of the UAE via Interpol’s system, even before the treaty. “When someone is listed on Interpol, it’s ‘arrest first and ask questions later’ and the UAE has been able to ride off the credibility of its Interpol membership. In other words, Denmark would not have arrested those individuals had they been asked directly by the UAE but because the request had come via Interpol, they took it seriously”, added Stirling. Denmark agrees extradition treaty with UAE, eyes British tax fraud suspect | Reuters The UAE has an astonishing history of Interpol Abuse, a term used to describe the inappropriate and abusive reporting of individuals to Interpol’s databases. “The UAE abuses their membership by reporting individuals to the database for the purpose of harassment, intimidation, vengeance or extortion. Local charges and convictions in absentia are manufactured against individuals before being listed with Interpol. One classic manoeuvre is to list someone with a small credit card debt under the category of fraud. Investors and entrepreneurs are regularly listed for fraud, embezzlement or bounced cheques to create a situation where they are unable to defend themselves in court and the Emirati complainant can simply steal their assets. Journalists, activists and political ‘opponents’ are commonly reported to the agency. This kind of abuse has been particularly prevalent from countries like the UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, Russia, China and Egypt and there are no signs of change. Radha Stirling on the Pressing Case for Interpol Reform “Interpol does not investigate a request from a member state before publishing. It relies on the country to voluntarily comply with the rules and now we have the UAE running the presidency of the organisation so we expect to see an increase in abusive notices. The King of Interpol Abuse “The misuse of Interpol has caused thousands of wrongful arrests across the globe with many of the victims being detained for months or years before their ultimate exoneration. In the event of a successful extradition request from the UAE, an individual is likely to face unfair trials, forced confessions, human rights violations and even torture. It is for this reason the British courts have denied extraditions to the country, even with the presence of a mutual treaty. Like the UK, Danish courts must consider the likelihood of citizens facing violations in the event of their extradition. Legal professionals call for UK-UAE extradition treaty to be suspended “We have a client in Denmark who has been the victim of this very harassment and is waiting to be removed from Interpol’s database. With the new treaty, he is concerned that the UAE may immediately request his extradition meaning he would face lengthy and expensive legal proceedings and potentially grave human rights violations in the event he were sent to Dubai. He should not be seen as ‘collateral damage’ in the pursuit of Sanjay Shah and Denmark must protect its citizens.” 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

Contractors stiffed by Saudi Prince for construction of venue for secret billionaires' meeting reveal potential plot to challenge MBS A new legal case by a group of contractors provides new potential insights into the events surrounding the detention of at least one of the 11 Saudi princes arrested shortly after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman assumed power. In November 2017, several Saudi elites were corralled in the Riyadh Ritz Carlton hotel and placed under house arrest, including 11 members of the royal family. Among them was Prince Turki bin Abdullah, who was charged with corruption stemming from his management of the Riyadh Metro project he initiated, but Saudi insiders suspect that his arrest may have had an even more sinister story behind it. A year after the Ritz-Carlton roundup, Saudi elites remain jailed by the crown prince - Washington Post “All of those detained were seen as potential rivals to Mohammed bin Salman,” explains Radha Stirling, founder and CEO of Due Process International and Interpol reform organisation IPEX, “It is well-known that divisions and enmity exist within different branches of the Saudi royal family, and MBS wanted to pre-empt any potential challenges to his authority. The arrests amounted to a purge in the eyes of most observers, but until this case, there was only conjecture about the extent of Prince Turki’s ambitions. Most people thought the purge was a symbolic show of force, not a response to a genuine challenge to Mohammed bin Salman’s power. However, the facts around the current case indicate that Turki may well have been making a play for greater influence.” The Dubai-based contractors, headed by a Jordanian national, were hired in 2016 to work on a secret project in the desert, the Tuwaiq Oasis. The project was the construction of a remotely-located luxury venue two hours outside Riyadh that would be used only once for an exclusive meeting between Prince Turki and an elite collection of international billionaires, known as “the Rare 10”. Turki set up a number of buffers between himself and the project right from the beginning, delegating supervision and budget allocation to intermediaries. The money for the project was to be first channeled through Major General Ali Al-Qahtani, the prince’s right-hand man, and then through a front company called Althat Arabia, under the direction of Mohammed Mansour, who would be in charge of overseeing the project. This convoluted management structure caused the project to encounter endless problems, with payments being regularly delayed to the contractors, and basic logistics issues being neglected by Turki’s designated supervisors. The prince’s apparent desire to maintain his distance from the Tuwaiq Oasis project very nearly resulted in it failing to meet completion on time, had the contractors not worked relentlessly to meet the deadline, despite enormous complications. In the end, Tuwaiq was built, and the secretive billionaire’s conference was held. Secured by Matt Wolman, attendees included some of the most influential, and in hindsight, perhaps most strategic figures in the worlds of venture capital, industry, law, and security: Kimbal Musk from Tesla, Scot Jarvis of Kratos Defense, John Cushman III of Cushman and Wakefield, Tracy Krohn of W&T Offshore, Richard Ziman of Rexford Industrial Realty, Michael Riady of Lippo Group, Lim Chee Wah from the Genting Group – who, along with Prince Turki himself, is linked to the 1MDB financial scandal involving Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund and disgraced former Prime Minister Najib Razak. Also in attendance were: Sky Dayton of Joby Aviation, Shervin Pishevar from Virgin Hyperloop One and Sherpa Capital, David Nazarian of Nîmes Capital, Phillip Nazarian of Nimes Real Estate, Henry St. George from the Grand Bahama Port Authority, Jahm Najafi of Najafi Companies, George Matelich of Kelso Private Equity, Joe Lonsdale from 8 VC, Michael Tang from National Material LP, Thomas Girardi of Girardi & Keese, and Gary Winnick of Winnick & Co. Given this guest list, it is self-evident why Prince Turki wanted to keep the “Rare 10” meeting a secret. Deals made with this assortment of power players would unquestionably be viewed by Mohammed bin Salman as an existential threat to his authority. After Tuwaiq’s completion, and after the “Rare 10” event was held, Turki wanted to completely separate himself from the project; the contractors were aggressively refused payment for their work and even threatened with legal cases and being listed on Interpol, in an apparent attempt to silence them and erase any possible trace of Turki’s secret meeting. “It has become almost common practice in the Gulf for local owners and investors to breach contractual obligations with foreign business people, refuse payment, expropriate funds, illegally cash security cheques, and to then pre-emptively register criminal complaints against their victims to cover up their own actions,” Stirling explains, “This is frequently the case when locals happen to be people in high positions; members of the royal family, government officials, or members of a particularly large and influential tribe. The court systems in the Gulf are not independent, and there is tremendous judicial bias in favour of powerful locals against foreign nationals, so conviction is guaranteed. It is also understood that members of a ruling family can act with impunity in most cases, especially against foreigners. Another prevalent tactic is to either threaten to list a foreign national on Interpol, or to actually have them subjected to a Red Notice on the basis of fabricated charges. These Notices can be used both for extortionary purposes or simply to neutralize any effort that person might make to secure justice. The Gulf States are notorious for their habitual abuse of the Interpol system.” According to the contractors’ lawyer, Dr. Jonathan Levy, Turki’s family is still very powerful in Saudi Arabia despite the fact Turki is seen as enemy number one of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman: “We don’t know exactly what sort of arrangement Turki made with the billionaires, but after the meeting took place, Turki reneged on his contract. My clients are now coming forward in the hope the Saudi government will step in.” Dr Levy went on to say: “If deals were made at Tuwaiq Oasis by the now disgraced prince, that too will be revealed. My clients will not keep silent about this especially after the prince’s family involved Interpol in an attempt to keep everyone quiet.” “The combined guest list of Prince Turki’s event at Tuwaiq Oasis represented a powerful nexus of financial, security, and technological global elites,” Stirling notes, “If the purpose of this meeting was not related to the prince’s personal ambitions, but to the development and interests of the Kingdom, it would have likely taken place at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh; not at a secretly constructed venue in the middle of the desert, which was subsequently abandoned; with the contractors who built it denied their payment, intimidated, and placed on Interpol like fugitives, in an attempt to completely rub the event out of history. It is a fair guess that, if Saudi authorities investigate the claims of the contractors in this case, they will discover that Prince Turki was involved in something much more serious than corrupt kickbacks from an infrastructure project, and that his plans recruited some of the most influential players in the international private sector, many of whom continue to operate and invest inside Saudi Arabia.” 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

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.