Transcription
Now, for a truly shocking story about a man's experience in a hellish Dubai prison. And while he's warning Brits to completely avoid the country, well, ex-Leeds Football Club Chief Executive and human rights lawyer David Haye spent 22 months locked up behind bars, where he was subjected to torture and sexual assault.
Uh, David, uh, thank you very much indeed for joining us. David, hey, we usually have you on to talk about things like stopping the boats and immigration law and the like. But we read your story in the Mail Online, and it is truly shocking. Had no idea this had happened to you. Uh, tell us a bit about how you ended up in a Dubai prison.
Hi, hi, good afternoon to you both. I mean, my, my story, it happened 10 years ago now. But the reason why it's come back into the media is there was a young lady, young Irish lady who was cabin crew, um, and she was, she basically had some issues in Dubai recently, um, and she was facing jail for drinking alcohol and an attempted suicide. So I think a lot of the, the newspapers, the Mail and the Sun, decided to focus on other people that have suffered things in, in the country in the last, um, you know, few years. And obviously, I was one of the most high-profile cases 10 years ago.
And, and what happened to me, Emily, effectively, I was running Leeds United, you know, dream job for, for, for many. Um, had a dispute with my then employers, um, who said, you know, come to Dubai, um, we'll, we'll sort everything out. Um, I quite happily get on a plane, um, a very nice, um, um, um, site land. Um, and a few hours later, I'm on the floor of a police station, um, with men with guns screaming, shouting me in Arabic, trying to get me to sign a false confession. Um, and that, you know, that ordeal lasted 22 months in all. 15 months I was held in, in what we would call arbitrary detention, which is, no one told me really why I was there, had no investigation, just 15 months shoved in, in, in a hole and the door locked. Um, and then, um, you know, I was very lucky. The picture you're seeing now, that was, um, smuggled out effectively through a, a police officer and put in the Daily Mail. Um, and once that story got out, um, you know, I think a few days later, I was charged with an offense called breach of trust and then found guilty of it and then pardoned nine days later. Um, I was then due to come home, um, and then another charge was filed against me, another so-called criminal charge for Twitter abuse while I was locked up. You know, there wasn't even a phone, so it's absurd that I somehow managed to abuse people on Twitter. So I was jailed for another nine months for Twitter breach of, of which I was acquitted. So, you know, 22 months of hell, um, and then eventually got back, um, on Good Friday in 2016 to a rather blaze of publicity. And so that's kind of how it happened. Um, yeah, not, not a nice experience.
No, it, it seems just extraordinary. It seems arbitrary. It seems everything that the justice system in the United Kingdom is not. Do you have a message for those who are, um, thinking of going on holiday in Dubai, thinking of doing business in Dubai? Is it, is it possible to do so safely?
You know, I think the short answer to that is effectively no. You know, I mean, from 10 years ago, and, you know, obviously with the profile that I had then, and what I now do, I help other victims of, of, of injustices and human rights abuses in Dubai. That's not just tourists that go there, it's not just expats that live there. You know, as many of your viewers will know, that I worked for the, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai, a lady called Princess Latifa. I helped her get her freedom. So, you know, it is a dangerous place, no matter who you are. The problem that you've got is that it really is marketed as this glamorous party capital of the Middle East, when the reality is it's not. It's got very strict Sharia-based laws, very similar to how you would have them in Saudi. You know, none of us, I'm sure, would think about going on a party holiday to Saudi. The UAE has the same type of laws. So I'll give you an example, if you, if you go into a hotel room with your girlfriend or your boyfriend, you're not married, you are breaking the law. And how many of these influencers that we see on Instagram and, you know, footballers and their their girlfriends do that day in day out? It's a very dangerous place, but no one sees the danger until it happens to them.
And David, reading the article in the Mail and hearing what happened to you, uh, sexual assault, punched, tasered, hit with a broom handle while you were incarcerated. You say you saw a man tortured to death. Can you just describe a little, I mean, the trauma you went through? I mean, it...
Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's something that never leaves you. And, you know, the article said I spent a lot of time in the hospital recovering from that. And, and, you know, in a, in a weird way, you can kind of, when someone abuses you, when someone punches you and does terrible things to you, um, you, you can kind of tolerate that. But what I found, and still find really difficult, is when you, you know, see the police hurting other people and torturing other people. And there's, you know, it's mentioned in the article, the one person that that they were beating and torturing that was lying next to me, and they stood on his throat and dragged him off with, you know, sounded like he wasn't breathing. And it's something that even now, 10 years later, you always think, what happened to that person? So, you know, that's why I do the work that I do now, because when you've gone through that situation, I was lucky. You know, I had a profile and I could talk. You know, once I managed to get to the media, I've got a, something of a big mouth, and I didn't stop for the last 10 years talking about what happened to me and then helping others. And, and, you know, that's by doing that, I hope that I'll, you know, protect some people there and help, help, help people that might go there that will suddenly think twice. Um, I mean, it was a horrific experience, Emily, but it's one that, you know, through the work that I've done, particularly when I look at people like Princess Latifa and, you know, Princess Haya, who is Latifa's stepmother, who I helped, you know, to get to safety, you know, from something dark and horrible, you know, something good has come. Um, so that's, you know, why I do the work that I do now.
And this was a big turning point in your life, did, sort of, that that experience, that, uh, those months, months in that horrible situation in that cell, not knowing sort of what rights you had, if any, not knowing when you might be coming back home, I suppose that inspired you for a pretty sharp change in career?
Well, absolutely. I mean, you know, before that, I was, if you're like, an, an evil corporate lawyer working in private equity and running a football club. So, you know, that's one of those kind of life-changing moments when you're in, you know, when someone throws you in a hellhole in, in, in a foreign country, um, slams the door shut, and no one's helping you, even the embassy was useless. Um, and, you know, you, you kind of have a moment to think about your life and what you want to do with it. And then, you know, I was in the fortunate situation, like I said, that because I ran a football club, I managed to get, you know, some attention, some press, and I could help other people because I, you know, if I spoke about their cases, it would get in the press. So, you know, it's something, you know, a lot of people ask me, you know, would I change what happened? And it might sound extreme to say it, but I, I probably wouldn't because the amount of people I've helped, you know, whether they're princesses or they're just, you know, everyday normal people in the last 10 years, I think, you know, that's so valuable. And, and hopefully, you know, we'll see, and we are seeing changes in the way that Dubai and, and other countries in the Gulf, where I help, treat the people. Um, they are taking notice. They do know they need to change these, these archaic laws and, and bring, you know, real justice, human rights into them. So I think that's a, a positive.
I mean, for most of us living in Britain, it's hard to imagine the hell, the hell you you went through. I mean, is your mental health still suffering from this? Have you had, you know, trauma as a result of this?
I think it never leaves you. I mean, the, the gentleman that I mentioned where I saw them, what I believe to, you know, killed someone, literally lying next to me, that's something that never really goes. I've had, you know, I've had a lot of treatment, you, you, the one called EMDR and various other things that they do, but I don't think you ever, ever fully recover when you've seen such horrors. But then, like, like I said, for me, the way that I kind of, you know, treat myself, like, is helping other people and seeing the joy and the happiness that they get from, when, when I can help them. Um, but it's, it's, I don't think anyone really recovers when you see something like that. But if you can get a positive from those very dark moments, um, I think that's the, the best thing you can do.
David, it really stings at my sense of, of, of justice and fairness that it tends to be cases that can get media attention are the ones that international embassies then rush to try and solve. Is it really that inequitable that, uh, so often in these cases, you have to get it into a paper, you have to get it on the television before the work to sort it out actually begins in earnest?
Absolutely. I mean, you know, in my case, if it hadn't got in the, in, you know, if it wasn't for the Daily Mail, if it wasn't for the BBC back then, you know, I could have been dead. You know, this young Irish lady, if she hadn't have got it in the press, she could not be with us now. Even Princess Latifa, you know, if the, the then again, it was the Sun and the Daily Mail that ran that story in 2018 when no other media wanted to. If that hadn't happened, she could be dead. You know, it's only this particular country and this area, the only thing they really care about is their reputation because they need that. They need our tourists, they need the expats, they need the investment, you know, coming this way as well. So they care about their reputation. And, you know, if you leave it to the embassy, particularly in the British Embassy and the Foreign Office, they, in all my case and in all the other cases that I help on relating to Brits, they're useless. Um, and they actually do more than that, in the fact they tell people don't go to the media. And it's only usually when people do that, and you see the ridiculousness of some of cases, you know, many Brits getting arrested for having drinks in a bar. There was a chap called Lee Bradley Brown who went there a decade ago as a tourist. He was murdered by the police. There was an inquest a couple of years ago, which you'll use if they Google, you'll be able to read about him. So it's only when you get to the media, get that justice at the moment. And one of the good things for this young lady, um, from, from Ireland, and something that I was really impressed with with her government, is her government, and this is very unusual, very quickly stood up and said, bring her home. We're not accepting this. I've never seen the English government or the Foreign Office do that or other. So, so all credit to the, the Irish government for protecting this young lady and for getting her home.
Well, thank you very much indeed for your time. Uh, really interesting to get your story, and we wish you best, uh, and with your health and everything going forward. Thank you very much, David.
He, I'm good to speak to you. Um, shocking, really. I think a lot of people go to Dubai and perhaps are a little naive that actually the law is very different over there. And they assume because they're Brits and, you know, that they can just go over there and they see the only ways, essentially, a little over there, you know, in their bikinis and all that. You have to be careful. Deeply irresponsible influencers and on sort of online image creation, I suppose it just goes to show that you should really read up on the law of any country you do go to, uh, because if you step out of line, there can be very serious, uh, repercussions.
Absolutely. Well.