A speck of dirt invisible to the human eye was all it took to land Cat Le Huy
in a Dubai jail.
Officials at Dubai airport claimed they had found 0.03 grams of hashish in the
Endemol television executive’s bag after he had travelled to the United Arab
Emirates to visit a friend last month. They accused him of possession —
which would have led to a mandatory four-year prison sentence had he been
convicted. After he spent six weeks in Dubai’s jails protesting his
innocence, prosecutors dropped the case this month.
Mr Le Huy, 31, a German citizen living in London, claims that Dubai officials
are paid a “bounty” for arresting drug offenders, a practice confirmed
independently to The Times by sources who did not wish to be named.
“People shouldn’t go to Dubai until the laws change,” Mr Le Huy said. “They
are running a risk. Even if you’re innocent and know about the laws, if they
suspect you of anything, you run the risk of incarceration.”
His experience is common, according to Fair Trials International, a legal
charity, which says that drug-related arrests have increased rapidly since
2006, when the laws changed in Dubai so that trace amounts of banned
substances picked up by airport detection equipment were deemed to indicate
possession. “People are being subjected to very thorough searches,” said
Saima Jirji, a solicitor at the charity. “Even seams in their clothing and
the fluff in their pockets is being checked.”
Mr Le Huy claims that he was also approached by a detective asking whether he
knew any drug-takers back in Britain and whether he could coerce them into
coming to Dubai. He alleged that at least two other foreign inmates had been
approached with similar requests. The UAE Embassy in London refused to
comment.
At first he was accused of smuggling heroin after officials found pills in an
unmarked container that turned out to be jet-lag medicine sold freely over
the counter in Dubai and the US.
He was strip-searched. Officials claimed to have found a trace of hashish in
his bag and detained him. He was asked to sign letters in Arabic, which he
could not read. Only after being told that he would at once be deported if
he signed did he do so, but he wrote “under duress” beneath each signature.
Instead of being deported he was put in solitary confinement. Because he was
dehydrated and forbidden from drinking he was only able to produce a urine
sample after eight hours.
Last year 59 British people were detained in Dubai over drugs offences, and so
far this year the figure is nine, according to the Foreign Office. Keith
Brown served nine months after customs officers found a 0.003 gram trace of
cannabis stuck to his shoe. This month the BBC Radio 1 DJ Grooverider, whose
real name is Raymond Bingham, started a four-year sentence for possessing
2.16 grams of cannabis.
Fair Trials said the list of prohibited substances included everything from
antidepressants to a cough medicine for children. Even those in Dubai on
transit to another destination can be arrested under the regulations.
Mr Le Huy denies that there were ever any drugs on his person. “Hashish isn’t
something available in my social circle — the idea it was in my bag is
absolutely ludicrous,” he says.
He was pressed by the authorities to plead guilty, but his refusal left him in
a legal limbo. After a persistent campaign by his friends in Britain and
after negotiations with his lawyer in the UAE, the Dubai authorities agreed
to drop the investigation.
He had initially spent two weeks at the airport jail, where he couldn’t shower
because of the condition of the bathrooms. To compensate, he “discovered the
magic of Dettol”, using the disinfectant to shower.
At Dubai Central Jail he suffered even worse conditions. Inmates slept eight
to a cell. Because of the poor food he lost 15 kilograms in weight (more
than two stone). “Every day was a bad day when you wake up and realise,
‘I’m still here.’ ” When he was finally released, he was taken to a police
station to pick up his passport, only for detectives to put him in a
bloodstained cell for another four hours.
During the six weeks he had found solace in the company of other
English-speaking inmates such as Grooverider. Mr Le Huy said that foreign
inmates were treated with “distant contempt” by guards, who “played mind
games” with them. “They’d ask us to go out in the courtyard at 1am, then
take four hours to search all our cells. There was a lad from London who had
a bronchial infection. They made him wait in the rain for four hours even
after we asked the guards if he could stand in the corridor.”
“The laws and punishments of a nation are theirs to set,” he emphasised,
adding: “My point is that you will be detained for a minimum of 21 days if
they suspect you of anything, whether or not you’re innocent.”
just got back from dubai and i am disgusted with the way they are treating human lives with such cruelty..alcohol is freely avaiable so dont tell me its a moral thing to due with islam..these are peoples lives they are destroying..they are not drug smugglers and have only been in possession of small amounts of cannabis unknowingly or through being careless.certainly does not deserve this kind of treatment.
i have been going to the area for eight years or so and this is a whole new practice by the customs..people must be warned of the dangers of smoking cannibis and going to the uae as it can last up to four weeks or more as a trace in your blood which is also a four year sentence.
i really feel for the people now in prison for such ridiculous sentences and i hope our goverment puts pressure on the country to release these people as soon as possible.
They are trying to be a tourist destination i think!
wads, porthleven, cornwall
i`m just back in europe after 45 days along with cat mentioned in your article. unfortunatley it´s all true. DO NOT GO TO DUBAI AND AVOID EMIRATES AIRLINES!!!!!
this is all i want to add ...
B.H., duesseldorf,
Having recently returned from Dubai I can only say the airlines must lace the onboard drinks with something that makes people like the place. However as I only drank water they failed to hook me! Dubai simply is the worst place I have ever visited. Of course it has sun, but then so do many other places. In short it has nothing going for it. A more disturbing aspect is the manner in which the exploited foreign workers are treated is appalling. Boycott the place, that’s my advice.
Michael, Oslo, Norway
" Dubai may be transforming into a modern financial centre, it is certainly not becoming a modern country"
Dubai is not and never will be a modern financial centre as long as the law cannot be trusted. Who would trade in good faith, when a deal that goes against a friend of the Emir - or anyone who can influence a judge - could put you in jail?
Who would go there is looking a bit eccentric - or Chinese, or gay, or just too 'kfir' on a holy day - could end in a search 'finding' enough drugs to get you sent to prison forever?
A modern financial centre is more than shiny modern buildings with phone lines.
Nile, Enfield, UK
I knew someone living in Dubai who had the bad fortune to yell at a car that almost ran him over. Unfortunately it contained a relative of the emir. As a consequence he spent 6 months in jail without a trial. Dubai may be transforming into a modern financial centre, it is certainly not becoming a modern country.
David , Edinburgh, U.K.
With every article about these arrests come new and horrifying revelations. I hope the UK government takes its collective head out of the sand and does something for it's citizens languishing in prison there.
Boycott Dubai!
Mildred, Los Angeles,
Even simpler - we don't have the prison space for our druggies, give them a one way ticket to Dubai.
GJB, Slough, Berkshire
Palatial hotels, third world jails.
Bad craziness.
David, Pemberton, Canada
It sounds like they don't want the unwashed masses travelling to Dubai. What minimum size bank account must one possess in order for the authorities to bypass such ridiculousness?
Dave, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Exactly, never go to Dubai
Why would you want to anyway?
mike, Newmarket,
Simple....never go to Dubai.
sedgwick, London,