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In the desert some 30km from central Dubai’s towering hotels and lavish shopping malls is a “hellish” Dubai prison, where inmates talk of being subjected to torturous conditions.
British teenager Marcus Fakana, 18, is facing a year in Al-Awir prison for a holiday romance with a British girl a couple of months younger than him.
The teenager, 18, from Tottenham, has issued a desperate plea to Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum to be allowed home and avoid the notorious “hellhole” prison over an allegation which is totally legal if the romance happened back in the UK.
Speaking in temporary accommodation while on bail, Mr Fakana told campaign group Detained in Dubai: “My family and I are devastated and in shock.
“I never intended to break the law. It didn’t occur to me at the time and for that, I’m sorry. I am asking His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum to please forgive me and pardon me.
“Let me go home. Please give me my life back.”
Al-Awir separates women and men on entry. Men are forced to have their head shaved on starting their sentence and are routinely punished if their hair gets long.
Human Rights Watch reported that non-nationals detainees in Al-Awir Central Jail were denied essential HIV treatments.
Even if the detainees are tested regularly, only national prisoners receive their antiretroviral medicine. In at least four cases, prisoners did not receive any treatment for between three and five months.
Londoner Suneet Jeerh, 25, was caged in the jail in 2013 after being arrested with two friends after police found a synthetic cannabinoid “spice” in their car.
His sister Davena Kumar told the Ilford Recorder how her brother was separated from his friends and forced to watch other inmates be sexually assaulted.
“He’s sharing a cell with someone who’s been sentenced for life,” she told the paper. “They’ve made him watch other men being raped, like it’s a lesson.’
When she visited after he’d spent a month caged in the prison, she claimed he had wasted away.
“He was skinny and he wasn’t himself,” she said, adding: “He was banging on the door calling my name and I just wanted to hug him.”
There were reports of poor food handling and inadequate general hygiene in special detention facilities for drug offenders.
Media reports and NGOs stated some detainees in State Security Department custody did not receive adequate access to medical care.
David Haigh, the ex-managing director of Leeds United who was held for nearly two years on trumped up fraud charges, described conditions back in 2017.
“The only way to describe being in prison in Dubai is hell,” he told The Independent.
“I was held for 22 months and I’ll never forget it – the stench, the dirt, the smell, the heat, and the lack of any information whatsoever.
He said he was punched, Tasered, beaten and raped. “The worst of this abuse was perpetrated by the prison guards and police. I lost a lot of weight through stress,” he said.
“Once, when I asked for some painkillers, a guard hit me over the head with a broom handle. When someone’s beating you or hurting you in whatever form, in a weird way you can deal with that. What I found more harrowing was seeing them do it to other prisoners in front of everyone.”
He added: “I remember an occasion where they brought a man in from the street, threw him on the floor and stood on his neck, three of them. You cannot imagine how that constant threat of abuse makes you feel.
Detained in Dubai, an organisation representing Mr Fakana, said the teen felt abandoned by the British government following the judgement, which it branded “an utter disgrace” and “an embarrassment to Britain”.
Family spokesperson Radha Stirling said: “He never imagined that he would be going to jail for a holiday romance with a girl who was a few months younger, but is now the same age.
“It is just shocking. His life is being ruined. Here we have two British tourists who were on holiday in a consensual relationship and now one is going to jail.”
A Downing Street spokesman said: “The prime minister recognises it’s an extremely distressing situation for Marcus and his family.”
Dubai’s Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.
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