Marcus Fakana gets prison sentence in Dubai.

[Ohnonotmeagain]

This is the 18 year old lad who had a holiday romance with a 17 year old girl in Dubai. She was just short of 18.

her parents found out and reported him to the Dubai authorities before he returned home.

his poor parents aren’t well off and had to return home to work leaving him there.

he’s now been sentenced to 1 year in prison.

aibu to think this poor boy should never have been brought before court.

^I think the girl should have had to go to Dubai for the court case.
Then they could be tried alongside each other^

I agree. The despicable mother might not have been in such a rush to report her daughter's consensual partner for having sex while being black.

Seriously, he was 18 on holiday with his parents.
He met another UK girl who was nearly 18.
I know ignorance is no defence but you sound like he should have been fully versed on UAE law for sex? Seriously??
How many 18 year olds on holiday with their parents thinks to look up sex laws in UAE.
For the record the girl didn't care about them/wasn't aware of them

I actually do have a cousin married to a black-British guy. He is accepted but I do think families which are more conservative (mine is not) would be less tolerant. My parents had an interfaith marriage in the 90s so no one bats an eyelid these days.

And had a stupid, vindictive mother, by the sounds of it. An 18-year-old is an adult. If you go somewhere with restrictive laws then knowing about the ones you might breach, at 18, is a good idea.

they are being blamed for not sending hr back to her parents when she came around. If a 17 year old is sneaking around with your child in a foreign country and you find out, you send them back.

it is irresponsible.

Hmm have you tried that with a 17 year old?

Once again she is essentially the same age as their son. Why are they being irresponsible for not seeking to control a 17 year old who is dating their son?

Except most people and especially not the average 18 year old at school is going to think of Dubai as a place with “restrictive laws”.

That’s the result of targeted advertising which uses SM influencers to sell it as a super desirable holiday destination and not a very hot shopping centre with medieval laws.

a very hot shopping centre with medieval laws.

//

A very accurate description

Why not? Anyway, his parents should have been aware and pointed the law out to him once he started seeing the girl.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

This is the best description of Dubai o have ever read! Makes you think how much influencers are paid to lie.

Maybe people need to also be made aware of Dubai’s not fit for the 21st century legal system. Dubai is built on sand both physically and metaphorically. Wtf people want to go there god only knows.

On the contrary. Loads of people would prefer them to be deported, we have enough criminals to pay for over here as it is.

That's a fair point but I suspect that he is absolutely terrified to the point of being suicidal and his family want to use all possible levers to save him from a very difficult year in prison. Detained In Dubai are not lawyers, they are a pressure group by nature and they aim to generate negative media coverage which is something the emirate of Dubai want to avoid. Sheikh Mohammed has intervened personally in such cases before so it's a tried and tested tactic.

The culture there, as you probably know, is such that if Sheikh Mohammed decrees his release, no local will say openly that it's a poor decision as he is an absolute ruler whose wisdom is not to be questioned.

I have sympathy for him, but when you travel to a different country, you have to abide by their laws.

And intervention in this case would make sense - how much will this put people off visiting - the negative press over what was in essence a teenage romance - is going to potentially hit it hard with a huge tourist sector put off going

He’s 18. Yes he should have known the law, but what 18yr old boy thinks to check that. I personally think her family are disgusting getting this 18yr old boy jailed. Hope they are happy.

The Daily Mail has already started with an article about the strict rules and would it put you off and some of the rules I didn’t know and at the moment the poll is at 70% yes and 10% not sure out of 12000 votes

I find the difference in attitudes on this thread, where he committed a crime and deserves his conviction and prison.

and the other thread where a lady has been convicted for fraud, recieved nothing but support, posters calling her an “amazing human being” and saying she absolutely didn’t deserve prison and it was all a terrible mistake, she didn’t mean it, etc.

very interesting. Why is one, an actual crime by UK standards, deserving of such sympathy, and the other, a non crime by UK standards, met with such a different attitude.

personally I think fraud woman deserves everything she got. And while Marcus did commit a crime by that countries standards, no I don’t think he deserves a year in prison and I would expect the UK govt/detained in Dubai etc to be pressuring the Dubai authorities to allow him to return home. Especially as it seems that the crime was deliberately escalated from a misdemeanour to ensure he got prison.

Haven't read all the thread but is there anything I can do to support this young lad.

Unbelievable

Exactly!

That was the final straw for me. It extinguished any lingering doubt I may ever have had about going there even as a connecting airport - which was sadly the case in this instance.

I will never visit or even connect there if I can help it.

I know there was a gofund me - presumably to fund legal and family travel expenses. However that may be closed now that he’s been unfortunately sentenced - unless the family are planning to go and appeal ( if thats even possible)