Cairo:
In the heady days of the Dubai gold rush, when real estate sold and resold even before a shovel hit the ground, the ambitious emirate was hailed as the model of Middle Eastern modernity, a boomtown that built an effective, efficient and accessible form of government.
Then the crash came and revealed how paper-thin that image was, political and financial analysts said. That realization, not just in Dubai but also in Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates, has cast a harsh light on an opaque, top-down decision-making process, not just in business but in matters of crime and punishment as well, political and financial analysts said.
The financial crisis and two criminal cases that have generated critical headlines in other countries have demonstrated that the emirates remain an absolute monarchy, where institutions are far less important than royalty and where the law is particularly capricious - applied differently based on social standing, religion and nationality, political experts and human rights advocates said.
"I think what we learned here the last four months is that the government, at least on a political level, is still very undeveloped," said a financial analyst based in Dubai who asked not to be identified to avoid compromising his ability to work in the emirates. "It's very difficult to read or interpret or understand what is going on. The institutions have not shaped up to people's expectations."
The most recent of the criminal cases occurred Dec. 31, when a British tourist, a Muslim, reported to the police that she was raped in a public bathroom of a luxury hotel in Dubai. She and her fiance, who had gone with her to report the attack, were arrested and charged with having illegal sex because they were not married, and with drinking alcohol in an unauthorized location.
Then, in another case that had already provoked widespread outrage, a court acquitted a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family, Sheik Issa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, of charges of torturing an Afghan merchant. In May, ABC News broadcast portions of a 45-minute video that showed Issa beating the man with a whip, a cattle prod and a wooden plank with a protruding nail, and firing bullets at him before driving over his legs with a sport utility vehicle.
The case went to trial under pressure from the international community, including the U.S. Congress, which had threatened to hold up approval of a deal that would allow the emirates to receive advanced civilian nuclear technology. The controversy eased when the emirates arrested Issa and agreed to put him on trial. The nuclear deal was signed in December.
While international human rights groups expected a conviction, residents of the emirates did not. Issa's brother, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, is the emir of Abu Dhabi and the president of the United Arab Emirates.
On Jan. 10, the judge in the case said that Issa had "diminished liability" because he had been on prescription drugs when he took the man to his farm, shoved sand in his face and mouth, pulled his pants down and beat him. The sheik was set free.
"This reminds us we are dealing with a ruling monarchy," said Christopher Davidson, a senior lecturer at the University of Durham in England who has written several books about the emirates. "We are dealing with the deification of this one branch of the ruling family. Any son of the family is a god."
The acquittal was especially troubling, human rights groups said, because the court sentenced to prison three others seen in the video aiding Issa. It also handed out five-year prison sentences (in absentia) to the two men who made and distributed the video, saying they were guilty of meddling with the sheik's medication and recording and distributing an unauthorized video. The men, who live in the United States, have denied the charges.
"If the UAE thinks that it is going to address the international outrage with a hush-hush trial that acquits him, they are in for a big surprise," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "There is going to be a great deal of focus on what is wrong with the UAE justice system and what is wrong with impunity in the UAE itself."
A spokesman for Abu Dhabi said the ruling family had no comment on the court case.
The case of the British tourist added fuel to the fire that was already burning through the emirates' image in the West. It was reported widely in the British news media, stoking outrage.
The couple had traveled to Dubai to celebrate New Year's Eve. The woman was 23, Muslim and of Pakistani descent, the man 44. No other details of their identities have been made public.
The woman told the police that she was raped by a Syrian waiter who worked in the hotel. When she and her fiance went to the Jebel Ali police department the next day to report the attack, they found themselves being questioned about their own relationship and arrested.
They were put in a holding cell, charged and released on bail. Their passports were taken, and they are being forced to remain in the emirates pending the outcome of an investigation. The National, a daily newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, reported that the police doubt a rape occurred at all. They say hotel security video supports the suspect's contention that he did not enter the bathroom after the woman.
"This sort of a prosecution, as a response to a claim of rape, besides striking me as grossly unfair and cruel, also is indicative of the arbitrary way in which the UAE enforces its laws," Whitson said.
Davidson, the university lecturer, said the decision to charge the couple also illustrated an old truth about Dubai's social structure: that there were different rules for different nationalities and religions, especially on questions of morality. The woman and her fiance probably received that treatment because she was Muslim, he said.
During the boom years, Davidson said, Westerners in particular could normally violate morality laws without fear of arrest, and prostitution was widespread, though there were exceptions. In one such case, a British couple was arrested and faced prison after having sex on a beach, but only after ignoring an earlier warning to stop. They were eventually deported, after receiving suspended three-month sentences.
Lt. Col. Abdul Qadir Al Bannai, director of the Jebel Ali police station, when reached by telephone, said that he had no time to speak about the couple in the rape case. But in an interview published recently in Gulf News, a newspaper in the emirates, he defended his department's actions, saying: "Our rules are clear in the UAE; illegal drinking and sexual intercourse is considered an offense, so a case was filed against the couple as well. But we didn't ignore the rape report." He told the newspaper that the Syrian accused of rape was in custody now.
The couple faces up to six years in prison if the case is brought to trial and they are convicted.
"It's awful," Davidson said, "but it's extremely predictable."
Then the crash came and revealed how paper-thin that image was, political and financial analysts said. That realization, not just in Dubai but also in Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates, has cast a harsh light on an opaque, top-down decision-making process, not just in business but in matters of crime and punishment as well, political and financial analysts said.
The financial crisis and two criminal cases that have generated critical headlines in other countries have demonstrated that the emirates remain an absolute monarchy, where institutions are far less important than royalty and where the law is particularly capricious - applied differently based on social standing, religion and nationality, political experts and human rights advocates said.
"I think what we learned here the last four months is that the government, at least on a political level, is still very undeveloped," said a financial analyst based in Dubai who asked not to be identified to avoid compromising his ability to work in the emirates. "It's very difficult to read or interpret or understand what is going on. The institutions have not shaped up to people's expectations."
The most recent of the criminal cases occurred Dec. 31, when a British tourist, a Muslim, reported to the police that she was raped in a public bathroom of a luxury hotel in Dubai. She and her fiance, who had gone with her to report the attack, were arrested and charged with having illegal sex because they were not married, and with drinking alcohol in an unauthorized location.
Then, in another case that had already provoked widespread outrage, a court acquitted a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family, Sheik Issa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, of charges of torturing an Afghan merchant. In May, ABC News broadcast portions of a 45-minute video that showed Issa beating the man with a whip, a cattle prod and a wooden plank with a protruding nail, and firing bullets at him before driving over his legs with a sport utility vehicle.
The case went to trial under pressure from the international community, including the U.S. Congress, which had threatened to hold up approval of a deal that would allow the emirates to receive advanced civilian nuclear technology. The controversy eased when the emirates arrested Issa and agreed to put him on trial. The nuclear deal was signed in December.
While international human rights groups expected a conviction, residents of the emirates did not. Issa's brother, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, is the emir of Abu Dhabi and the president of the United Arab Emirates.
On Jan. 10, the judge in the case said that Issa had "diminished liability" because he had been on prescription drugs when he took the man to his farm, shoved sand in his face and mouth, pulled his pants down and beat him. The sheik was set free.
"This reminds us we are dealing with a ruling monarchy," said Christopher Davidson, a senior lecturer at the University of Durham in England who has written several books about the emirates. "We are dealing with the deification of this one branch of the ruling family. Any son of the family is a god."
The acquittal was especially troubling, human rights groups said, because the court sentenced to prison three others seen in the video aiding Issa. It also handed out five-year prison sentences (in absentia) to the two men who made and distributed the video, saying they were guilty of meddling with the sheik's medication and recording and distributing an unauthorized video. The men, who live in the United States, have denied the charges.
"If the UAE thinks that it is going to address the international outrage with a hush-hush trial that acquits him, they are in for a big surprise," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "There is going to be a great deal of focus on what is wrong with the UAE justice system and what is wrong with impunity in the UAE itself."
A spokesman for Abu Dhabi said the ruling family had no comment on the court case.
The case of the British tourist added fuel to the fire that was already burning through the emirates' image in the West. It was reported widely in the British news media, stoking outrage.
The couple had traveled to Dubai to celebrate New Year's Eve. The woman was 23, Muslim and of Pakistani descent, the man 44. No other details of their identities have been made public.
The woman told the police that she was raped by a Syrian waiter who worked in the hotel. When she and her fiance went to the Jebel Ali police department the next day to report the attack, they found themselves being questioned about their own relationship and arrested.
They were put in a holding cell, charged and released on bail. Their passports were taken, and they are being forced to remain in the emirates pending the outcome of an investigation. The National, a daily newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, reported that the police doubt a rape occurred at all. They say hotel security video supports the suspect's contention that he did not enter the bathroom after the woman.
"This sort of a prosecution, as a response to a claim of rape, besides striking me as grossly unfair and cruel, also is indicative of the arbitrary way in which the UAE enforces its laws," Whitson said.
Davidson, the university lecturer, said the decision to charge the couple also illustrated an old truth about Dubai's social structure: that there were different rules for different nationalities and religions, especially on questions of morality. The woman and her fiance probably received that treatment because she was Muslim, he said.
During the boom years, Davidson said, Westerners in particular could normally violate morality laws without fear of arrest, and prostitution was widespread, though there were exceptions. In one such case, a British couple was arrested and faced prison after having sex on a beach, but only after ignoring an earlier warning to stop. They were eventually deported, after receiving suspended three-month sentences.
Lt. Col. Abdul Qadir Al Bannai, director of the Jebel Ali police station, when reached by telephone, said that he had no time to speak about the couple in the rape case. But in an interview published recently in Gulf News, a newspaper in the emirates, he defended his department's actions, saying: "Our rules are clear in the UAE; illegal drinking and sexual intercourse is considered an offense, so a case was filed against the couple as well. But we didn't ignore the rape report." He told the newspaper that the Syrian accused of rape was in custody now.
The couple faces up to six years in prison if the case is brought to trial and they are convicted.
"It's awful," Davidson said, "but it's extremely predictable."
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
