Marcus Fakana sentenced to a year in prison

[Zippedydodah]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles]]]]
I cannot believe that this lad is going to spend a year in prison- yes, I know that’s the law there, he should have known better etc, etc
I hope that the girl’s mother is ashamed of her actions.
I don’t want to think what the impact will be on Marcus 😥

Most people don’t know the laws in this country let alone the confusing, often changing laws of other countries.

If, hand on heart you can say you research every single law for every country you visit and convey all these laws to every member of your family . Then yes you can be all smug and say ‘well he should have looked up all the laws’…

I don't have any sympathy for a man who rapes a child. A year isn't much of a sentence anyway.

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He didn't rape her.

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If a Nigerian man came to the UK and had sex with a 13 year old girl, people would rightly call it rape and child abuse.

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What an utterly ridiculous comparison.

Stop making things up. He's not a rapist

What I have difficulty understanding is that if the mother was so religious and protective of her daughter is where she thought her daughter was when she was meeting up with Markus.

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Absolutely

Yes this! She should be controlling her own child, making sure said child follows her rules, customs and expectations. Her failure in doing so, surely can not be the reason to harm another child?

Outrageous

I do think if you’re that strict a mother (as she appears to be) - then where on earth did she think her 17 year old daughter was in this very strict Arabic country. Surely she would have had a curfew and the parents would be keeping a close eye on her? Even purely for safety reasons?

I looked up the laws that might pertain to my activities..mostly driving . The govt sites warn you about extraordinary laws that could be jailworthy. And Dubai’s laws on sex outside marriage are there, online. Muslim attitudes are well publicised..don’t we keep discussing Sharia over here? I don’t pay much attention to the news but even I have seen discussion and comment. Especially when some unfortunate has been stoned to death, or someone has gone on holiday and not been allowed to leave, facing jail for saying something they didn’t like. So going to the Middle East would surely tweak a few red flags worth looking for.

They aren’t going to change their laws for non Muslims any further than they have on the say so of someone on Mumsnet. Instead of saying what they should do, on here, would it be more productive to petition our govt or Dubai authorities to intercede? Anyone can start an online petition and once it gets 100,000 ? Signatures, it must be debated in Parliament

There was quite a lot of focus from the media for the Qatar World Cup not long ago - warning football fans what they were not permitted to do with regards to dress, alcohol, photography, intimacy etc. - with examples of strict rules and harsh prison sentences. So, hand on heart, I would have been wary visiting Dubai and assumed it was not dissimilar to Qatar.

That wasn’t what he was charged with nor was there a rape trial. So there was no guilty / not guilty verdict.

Prisoners are raped, beaten and infecfed with HIV? Can you point to some sources for that? You can’t get a visa to the UAE if you have HIV so I’m curious where you have that information from.

No one has been stoned to death in Dubai.

The views of the UK parliament are irrelevant to Dubai’s laws. All the UK can do is strengthen its travel warnings, if it wishes. It can’t intervene beyond asking/lobbying the UAE to look again at Marcus’ case and you would be surprised how rarely that happens. It’s usually reserved for cases such as Matthew Hedges; or situations such as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran. If you’ve broken the law, the embassy offers nothing but very minimal consulate support.

What is more likely is that Marcus’ sentence will be suspended on appeal and he’ll be deported. That has happened a few times. Or be may be pardoned in Ramadan, which is close.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newarab.com/news/british-expats-tortured-and-abused-uae-prisons%3famp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2017/7/5/survivors-call-for-action-to-stop-uae-torture

https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/prisoners-claim-they-contracted-hiv-in-jail-1.562403
Makes for fairly horrendous reading

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde25/005/2006/en/

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/UA000322/

I’ve posted links earlier about the jail and thank you @Reetpetitenot

I hope I’m wrong! I hope it’s like a jail here and he does his year with no issues and is out in no time. I just wanted people to understand it doesn’t look like that and I for one am worried about him. I feel some are playing down this prison sentence.

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

Horrible that some posters are minimising what has happened to Marcus.
Pretty obvious what they are.

Karl Williams, a former inmate has written about his experiences in this jail. Of course many prisoners have HIV (and they’ve been denied treatment). Maybe he’s lying in his auto biography. I hope he is as it sounds brutal. It’s called Killing Time and it’s also a BBC documentary.

Makes me wonder if the girls mother researched jail conditions just like everyone says Markus should have researched laws around sex.

Because if you were aware of the conditions even though you want to exact revenge you must be extremely cold hearted to think up to 20 years in jail for a rape charge in these conditions is a suitable and proportionate punishment for having sex with a 17yo girl.

Even in a decent jail you'd have to be hard of heart to think it's proportionate - but in these conditions ......... 👀

Why are people downplaying the terrible way prisoners in Dubai are treated? It is well documented.

A European prisoner who shared a cell with Brown described Brown's condition as "terrible", but clarified he did not see him being beaten.The prisoner explained, "I saw him bleeding. He had bruises on his face, shoulder and arms when he asked me for help....he kept saying: ‘Please help me, please help me'."

The European prisoner noted that "Brown was half naked with both his hands and legs in cuffs. He wore nothing on top … and no shoes… his pants were hanging well below the waist."

The prisoner noted that Brown was not eating, and asked the police to help him.Dubai police noted that Brown had been vomiting the day before his death but added that Brown neither complained about nor sought medical help.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Lee_Bradley_Brown

From what I read the girl confessed to her mother on the flight back to the UK that she had been having sex with Marcus.

On arriving back in the UK the mother filed a rape charge. Now the assumption on this thread is that the mother did this because she was evil or racist or classist.

An alternative explanation is that the girl falsely told her mother that she was raped rather than admit it was consensual. The situation then got out of hand after the mother then reported this alleged rape.

We will never know if the false accusation of rape originated from the girl or the mother but either way he committed a crime under the laws of another country (even if its not illegal in the UK). Their country their rules.

This may or may not be the case and no one will ever know

This is where the UK Government, and indeed the UK media which is read by people who might book holidays in Dubai, can usefully apply pressure.

Presumably they do have safer non-hellhole prisons for favoured prisoners: every functioning country does.

I have no idea. It’s really bizarre.

I’m guessing some are downplaying the horrific conditions in Dubai jails as it suits their narrative that ‘it’s only a year and that’s what he deserves’.

Only someone very callous could believe an 18 year old boy deserves to be beaten and maybe raped in horrific conditions- 20 to a cell? A year is a long time in those conditions. The punishment here really doesn’t fit the ‘crime’

You’re also making yourself look quite ignorant by not understanding what goes on in these jails.

I’m sure someone will resurrect a 2 year dormant profile before long to tell us why he deserves everything he gets because he’s a rapist and sex offender