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.

  • li10@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    Fuck that guy, but at the same time that’s a ridiculous sentence.

    Honestly, you have to be mental to go to one of these countries. I know they want to become tourist hubs, but there’s just so many reasons to avoid.

    • nicetriangle@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Yeah I refuse to ever take a flight route through any of those countries. I don’t care if it’s a 15 min layover.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Eh, I’ve been through Dubai on a layover. It’s fine as long as you act normal and dress conservatively. Obviously there are people who can’t or won’t meet that standard but it’s genuinely fine for most people.

        • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          Yea nah fuck that noise. I could dress in a burka wrapped around a hazmat suit and it would still take one “security” personnel to google me, see I’m queer, and hatecrime me with the full support of his autocratic, theocratic government.

          Is it likely to happen? Prolly not. Do I want to take the risk? Nah, because it’s just way too dumb of a reason to end up gang raped in a UAE prison. In fact I’ll stick to democratic countries in general thankyouverymuch.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Yeah, absolutely. I didn’t want to get into all the people who can’t go through there without being at risk just for who they are. I’d never expect you or anyone else in the same situation to put yourself at risk just because the UAE doesn’t care about a middle age white guy.

    • lovesickoyster@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      but at the same time that’s a ridiculous sentence.

      I mean… he had the option of just paying the fine and be done with it - he gambled and he lost.

      Honestly, you have to be mental to go to one of these countries.

      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)

      • li10@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        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.

        • 01011OP
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          11 months ago

          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.

          • li10@feddit.uk
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            11 months ago

            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.

            • Stamets@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              The UAE is a humans rights shithole anyway. This is just the tip of the very shitty, bigoted, racist, hateful iceberg.

            • Skeezix@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Ah, and what country may that be because it certainly isn’t the USA

          • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Emirati authorities have put in place laws that reflect their values

            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.

          • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            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.

            • 01011OP
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              11 months ago

              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.

              • Transporter Room 3@startrek.website
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                11 months ago

                Wow, two months wages is totally reasonable for having a bad day, and getting mad at the people responsible all because you said a “no no”

                Remind me to never visit whatever shithole you consider “good and reasonable” if that’s your take. Two months salary and months of prison time is insane no matter what country you are from.

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  This wasn’t a bad day. I have bad days all the time and I don’t yell at other people over it.

                • 01011OP
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                  11 months ago

                  Having a bad day does not give you the right to be abusive.

                  Many a domestic abuser has used the same logic to justify assaulting their spouse.

              • Elektrotechnik@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                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?

          • BURN@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            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

            • 01011OP
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              11 months ago

              As opposed to the Western world where that would never happen…

              The judicial system is never used to persecute racial minorities in the West…

              • JungleJim@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                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.

          • avater@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Laws like the one that forbid that a homosexual couple can share kisses in public places?

            • 01011OP
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              11 months ago

              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.

              • avater@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Why is homosexuality the big go to when looking to attack the UAE?

                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.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              It’s a face saving culture. So yeah, by our standards they will over react to embarrassment.

              • JungleJim@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                by our standards

                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.