A UK citizen has been sentenced to three months in jail in Dubai after “insulting” airport staff who were slow to bring his mother a wheelchair.
The unnamed man was originally issued a Dh 10,000 (£2,150) fine, but his appeal against this failed and his punishment was extended to a jail term on 6 November.
An airport employee told the court that the man swore at her after she had explained the airport’s wheelchair policy to him, telling him that “a wheelchair would be made available before boarding the bus”.
“When I tried to explain it to him, he insulted me using very bad language. I told the traveller that using such offensive language is not allowed at Dubai airport but he responded that he didn’t care.”
The employee then called the police, and a case was filed against the man in Dubai’s Criminal Court. Following an appeal, which he lost, the fine was escalated into a jail sentence, followed by immediate deportation.
I mean… he had the option of just paying the fine and be done with it - he gambled and he lost.
Sometimes it’s almost impossible to avoid. Dubai and Doha are huge hubs for connecting flights.
(I am also not a huge fan because Dubai airport was the only time in my life where I had to wait in line to take a piss)
The fine is obscene as well.
I don’t think “gambled and lost” is a good enough excuse to imprison someone for 3 months over verbal abuse.
I don’t want to defend this asshole, but the punishment is just too much for what he did.
Maybe if we locked up a few more Karen’s retail workers won’t have PTSD as much
You’re very much talking from the perspective of somebody who was raised in a society where speaking disrespectfully to strangers is tolerated. The Emirati authorities have put in place laws that reflect their values - one of which is that people should communicate with a civil tongue. If you are unable to do so then it’s best you not go to the UAE.
I come from a society where the government doesn’t imprison people willy nilly.
And I will be avoiding the UAE like the plague, because our values about peoples freedom and rights are polar opposites.
The UAE is a humans rights shithole anyway. This is just the tip of the very shitty, bigoted, racist, hateful iceberg.
Ah, and what country may that be because it certainly isn’t the USA
Yeah how’s those apostasy laws? Oh! Lookie there, it’s death. Noice. But in fairness I wouldn’t recommend the United States to folks based on my experience of having lived here all my life. So I think it’s fair to live and let live at the end of the day.
That said, challenging a fine and that challenge resulting in an increased sentence encourages folks to accept guilt when it may not be due. I don’t like it when they do it here in the US, I think it’s fair to indicate that it’s not liked anywhere else.
They put laws in place that reflect their desire for control. Is your head so far up your own ass that you think that the people setting those laws actually follow them?
There’s separate laws for the ruling class. They don’t give a flying fuck about “values”, they just want control
As opposed to the Western world where that would never happen…
The judicial system is never used to persecute racial minorities in the West…
Why is the best defense for the actions of the UAE that “the west” has done it as well? I thought you guys wanted to be better than “the west”. If we’re such a poor example of morality, surpass us instead.
In my country it’s also not allowed to insult others, but the fine is not that insanely high. I think it was about 20x or 40x too high. The person should pay it and feel bad he lost his money in this stupid way, not lose one or two entire months of pay as a fine or even be jailed over it. This can ruin someones life instead of making him a better person.
How do income levels in your country compare to Dubai?
A fine should be substantial enough that people who would otherwise behave in a despicable manner rethink their behavior. Two months wages is about right.
Okay, I don’t agree with what you said at all. But for argument’s sake, how do you justify that they arbitrarily can raise a fine to a substantial prison sentence? That doesn’t even make sense, not even by your logic. You just said what you think is just, two months of his wage.
So what did he do between insulting somebody and appealing in court that was so bad? Appealing in the first place?
They’re taking 2 months of wages forcibly by holding him!
Laws like the one that forbid that a homosexual couple can share kisses in public places?
Why is homosexuality the big go to when looking to attack the UAE?
There are people in the West who grew up in societies where homosexuality was illegal and where physically assaulting homosexuals was rife.
It is only relatively recently that has ceased to be the case.
Public displays of affection are not cultural norms in the GCC between men and women.
Why not? It fucking sucks and is against human rights, everywhere it happens. And it’s quite a stark contrast for the UAE to behave like this great, modern society and still have this kind of dark age laws…
And that’s a big reason for me to avoid such archaic countries in general.
So they overreact when their feelings get hurt there and I shouldn’t go. Got it.
It’s a face saving culture. So yeah, by our standards they will over react to embarrassment.
The only standards I’ve got.
I believe in cultural relativism, but I don’t think it’s an absolute. It only goes so far. It’s just (like) my opinion (man), but anybody who reacts that way to an insult loses much more face or respect than a person who is big enough to have a measured and reasonable response, rather than taking months of a person’s life as punishment for less than 30 seconds of speech.
Sure, and I’m sure you can just explain that to the legal system of any face saving culture you happen to find yourself in.
I believe I mentioned I wouldn’t be going to such places, but I appreciate your concern for my well-being.
Yeah they really respect women and foreign workers - so much respect. Fuck the UAE and fuck anyone for thinking it’s a respectable nation.
Don’t you guys have like a fuck load of slaves?
Civil tongue? Sorry what?
Have you never been to a busy bar, concert, restaurant, music festival, street fair, or sporting event before? Hell I’d say I’ve waited in line at an airport almost every other time I travel. When a big flight lands, the nearest bathroom often gets slammed. I’ve experienced this across the US and Europe.
I’m shocked anyone’s made it through life without queuing for the bathroom more than once.
Honestly, nope, never, except that one time. There are usually enough urinals or if I had to wait it was a minute max.
In my case at dubai airport at that time that specific terminal only had one restroom with two urinals, and there was a double queue from the urinals to the outside of the restrom, probably about 30 people long. It did not get any shorter for the hour and a half I was there - I waited.
Ok yeah that’s exceptionally bad. Surprising with how much money that country seems to like to blow on everything. Form over function I guess.
Really? The terminal I did a layover in was super modern, bathrooms included. I wonder if you came in a different one?
Possibly. It has been like 10 years ago since I last flew through dubai though, so things might have changed.