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 sadly suspect race is an issue here. If it had been a white teen I doubt anything would have happened.

It's a year in prison. It's not the end of the world. Yes Dubai has harsh laws. Hopefully this news story will make more people aware of them.

It's a year in prison. It's not the end of the world....."

Will it have implications for future travel to other countries- the US for example.

Where's your compassion.

“It's a year in prison. It's not the end of the world....."
Will it have implications for future travel to other countries- the US for example

I suspect so. His best hope is really
to receive a “pardon” which I believe has been done in other cases in Dubai. I think that would wipe the conviction and cut short the sentence depending on when they pardon him.

I read another case recently of a man who is or was detained for writing negative reviews about his former UAE employer on Google. He made the mistake of going back there on holiday and was arrested. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdd0ggyvd86o.amp

He apparently hasn’t been jailed but he isn’t allowed to leave the country yet. It’s all just bonkers. If my friend does still go out to work there as she plans, I’ve told her not to expect a visit from me!

It's amazing how many 'it's the law' people are on this thread. The same people you see berating Middle Eastern countries for other draconian laws ☹️.

I hope the mother chokes on the tongue she used to report that poor young man.

Have you read about the conditions in the prison? I can't believe anyone would think a day there isnt the end of the world never mind a year, are you being serious?

Prison isn't supposed to be nice. He broke the law of the land he was in. A year is not a long time in someone's lifetime. Hopefully he learns something from the experience.

If course it's not, no one's suggesting that but equally it shouldn't be a hell on earth. I can't see how his life won't be ruined, what do you think he might learn that he doesn't already know

There's 'not nice' and then there is the prison he will be going to.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/marcus-fake a-alawir-prison-dubai-b2664027.html

Read that article, it is horrifying and hopefully after you read about the place you'll understand that a year locked up there could absolutely destroy someone, let alone an 18 year old with little life experience who recently finished school.

And that's without factoring in the racism towards black people from Dubai authorities and many civilians.

I cannot imagine the utter terror this young man is experiencing.

This isn't 'not nice', it is far far beyond that.

My link didn't work @OonaStubbs here is the correct one:

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/marcus-fakana-alawir-prison-dubai-b2664027.html

Don’t date girls with vicious racist parents?

Oh @OonaStubbs I’ve discovered the lesson he is meant to be learning:

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.’

It's amazing how many 'it's the law' people are on this thread. The same people you see berating Middle Eastern countries for other draconian laws ☹️.

The point is that Dubai is in a Middle Eastern country with draconian laws. Yes, it’s appalling. Yes, it’s a repressive and brutal regime. People ignore all that to go on holiday there.

If you choose to holiday in a country where homosexuality is illegal, where they arrest women reporting rapes for ‘extramarital sex’, where those arrested are often tortured and there is no rule of law you are taking a huge risk. Of course it’s a ridiculous sentence and the prison conditions will be inhumane. Of course the young man doesn’t deserve this. Instead of blaming the girl’s mother though why not blame the country for having those laws. In most countries the mother being a flaming arsehole wouldn’t lead to an 18 year old being sentenced to a year in jail.

It’s not a safe place to visit. It’s not a safe place to be a woman. It’s a brutal, repressive regime with shiny hotels and shopping malls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HumanrightsintheUnitedArabEmirates#Forceddisappearancesandtorture

He's 18 and he had sex! Good grief is that a lesson you'd want your own son to learn?

It's a prison in Dubai. Not a Duke of Edinburgh hike ffs.

Don't worry,he has a whole year to learn it, I'm sure @OonaStubbs will see that a fair punishment

I’m curious about the evidence presented by the girls family. IIRC, it was phone communications … texts? Photos?

There must be messaging confirming what took place, otherwise there would be no evidence at all.

Obviously know nothing about degree of evidence required in Dubai for this type of conviction - but thinking there is more to this story than we are being told.

Unfortunately vacuous SM influencers will still flock there whether on a freebie or for the bragging rights.

I expect the usual evidence is confession obtained by torture.

I'm sure you knew everything when you were 18 🙄

If an 18 year old man from Iraq came to Britain and had sex with a 9 year old girl, would that be OK because it is legal in the country he comes from and he shouldn't be expected to be aware of local laws?

Oh come on, that’s nowhere near the same thing.

if a 16 year old lad from Iraq came to the uk and had a consensual holiday romance with a not quite 16 year old also from Iraq (or anywhere tbh) then no, I wouldn’t expect a prosecution, even if it is technically a crime here.

from what I can gather the prosecution in Dubai managed to get the offence escalated from a misdemeanour into something much more serious.

Your comparison is ridiculous.

The comparison is someone just over the age of consent having sex with someone a couple of months under the age of consent.

So the equivalent would be a 16 year old from Iraq having sex with a 15 and a half year old girl in the UK where the age of consent is 16.

Comparing what happened in this specific case in Dubai with an adult of 18 abusing a pre pubescent girl makes you sound ridiculous.