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 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