Marcus Fakana gets prison sentence in Dubai.

This has been on my mind all day 😢
Absolutely heartbroken for the family 💔 they have been through an awful year.

That poor family. This is heartbreaking.

Oh that’s really sad.

Very sad, poor family

That’s awful how tragic, I was following his case poor boy

He was a passenger in a car which crashed whilst failing to stop for the police. The vehicle evaded a police car and crashed. The driver has been arrested.
Tragic for his poor parents.

His poor parents. That’s tragic.

I’ve just read that he’s been killed in a car crash in London. How awful.

I’d agree with you about raising the age of marriage to 18. I’d like to see the age of consent raised too or at least under age sex being taken much more seriously. With some Romeo and Juliet laws to account for teenage stupidity/ hormones. An adult who has sex with a child should be looking at automatic jail time.

She said: "It does not warrant a year in jail, doesn't warrant tearing this family apart and ruining this young 18-year-old's life.
"I'm confident that, on appeal, the custodial sentence will be overturned and he will be allowed to return home.
"The question is how long is that going to take and how much effort is that going to take, whether that's British intervention or the public support in telling Dubai this is unacceptable?"

The above is a quote from Detained in Dubai from the article. They obviously have experience of this and hope they are right about the likely outcome of the appeal.

Logically speaking I don’t know if it will do any good tbh (wish it would though!) but it’s perfectly understandable that his family and friends will be feeling helpless and want to make some noise about it. They have every right to express themselves @OonaStubbs I can’t see myself just accepting such an outcome if it was my little cousin or something.

They could well be worried for his mental health and safety, and the long term impact of that. you really don’t know.

What good is protesting in London going to do? He committed the crime, he needs to do his time and move on with his life. Hopefully the publicity from this case will make people think twice about visiting Dubai and for those that do go there, think twice about breaking the law.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce90eljzr0eo

Hardly!

Zimunya, I think we studied a bit of that years ago on my law degree in a very interesting module. Is there objective right and wrong and all that kind of thing?

Eg I don't support the very recent change in English law of youngest age of marriage from 16 to 18 as some religions in the Uk don't allow sex outside marriage and yet you are allowed sex under English law (and can marry in Scotland aged 16) so I think we should either have had age 18 as age for marriage or increased age of consent to sex to 18. I am sure most people won't agree with me.
The the assisted dying law proposal not yet law which I don't support - will allow some killing of older people other than at their own hand etc.

The biggest issue might well be cultures in the UK who may not support democracy and hope it can be over turned to theocracy. In a sense we kind of have that as the King is head of the C of E and we have Christianity worked in right through all kinds of bits of our laws but the not perhaps in the same way some might want the law changed.

I am old enough to have been born in a time when even in the UK sex before marriage was not regarded as okay although it was lawful. I was even a virgin all through university.

Yes and that's unfortunate and it's disgusting that rape victims get in trouble for reporting their crimes.

But I still wouldn't go on holiday to a Muslim country and choose to have extra marital sex.

I wouldn't go to a Muslim country and have sex outside of marriage.

Loved this: "The issue of whether we think our laws in eg England are always the morally right ones and perfect on these issues even as they change over time is always fascinating. Do we have objectively better laws or are we being imperialistic etc to think our laws are better?"

Having lived and worked in 9 separate countries I often think about this. There are things that are so sensible and work so well in each country (as well as things that really frustrate you and make you furious!), and I've always thought it would be great if we could implement the best of each country and ditch the worst. But as you rightly state, who determines "the best"? They're the best in my view only - not everyone will agree. You can bet your bottom dollar that Emiratis are not filling chat forums with angst about their laws - they're prefectly content with them.

I thought of this thread when reading today a British lady was detained and will need to appear in court although has been released as she entered India with a Garmin inReach device on her - GPS for hikers etc banned in India apparently. www.ndtv.com/india-news/scottish-hiker-carrying-garmin-inreach-gps-device-detained-at-delhi-airport-7389269

Yes, checking local laws is something lots of people do particularly if they are gay. The quotes above about a girl "consenting" if age 13, 14 or 15 are interesting and of course understand why prosecutions may not always take place if she consents. The FLDS girls spiritually married at 13 - 15 might well feel they consent. The issue is the law sometimes says although you think you consent you cannot consent. The Rotherham girls in some cases were offered all kinds of presents if they "consented" but it was still an offence and the perpetrators were punished.

Anyway I don't think anyone really disagrees on the thread - Dubai law is quite strict and the adult male who thought sex outside marriage with someone who was 17 was okay would have been better advised to check the law before proceeding.

The issue of whether we think our laws in eg England are always the morally right ones and perfect on these issues even as they change over time is always fascinating. Do we have objectively better laws or are we being imperialistic etc to think our laws are better?

D.

It’d be something I’d do if I was concerned my actions might be questionable. So if I was off to Amsterdam. I’d of checked about rules of weed consumption for tourists. Good idea to know about drinking in public. sometimes you can’t have an open container of alchohol in certain places.

Some places say that you have to carry iD at all times or get a fine if unable to produce when asked. It’s the sort of information you find in the know before you go section of the lonely planet guide to your destination of choice.

I find this attitude really interesting - is googling local laws genuinely something you do before you go on holiday to Spain or Turkey?

I don't know if there exists an offense called "statutory rape" in any jurisdiction (certainly not many) - it's simply an umbrella term for nonforcible sex where one of the individuals is below the age of consent.

It is a term used by various lawyers in the UK (including on their websites) but it's a term with a "general" definition, rather a legal one.