A British teenager who was jailed in Dubai for having sex with another UK tourist has spent his birthday behind bars after welcoming the new year in solitary confinement.
Marcus Fakana, now 19, from Tottenham, was 18-years-old when he was arrested for having sex with a 17-year-old girl from London while he was on holiday with his parents in the UAE city in August.
The girl was just one month away from turning 18, but sex with anyone under the age of 18 is an offence in the Gulf state.
Having spent New Years in isolation, Fakana was then kept from speaking to his family as he turned 19 in the maximum-security al-Awir central prison for men, which is home to death row inmates, murderers, terrorists and violent gangsters.
In an update shared on X, the CEO of campaign group Detained in Dubai, Radha Stirling, said: ‘Marcus Fakana spent New Year’s in isolation and his birthday in Dubai jail.
‘The now-19-year-old, has been able to telephone his family. He’s hanging in there.’
Al-Awir is notorious for its cramped conditions, where inmates often fall sick while crammed 20 to a cell designed to house just three to four people.
Prisoners have previously claimed to have been tortured for confessions, and rape is reportedly an ‘everyday occurrence’, carried out by both inmates and guards.
Fakana began his secretive holiday romance in August with the girl who was then just a couple of weeks short of her 18th birthday.
They were reportedly planning on continuing their relationship when they were back in London.
But the girl’s mother reportedly found birth control pills, photos and chats upon their return to the UK and informed the Dubai police, who arrested Fakana at his hotel.
Following his arrest, campaigners have said it is ‘outrageous’ that the foreign secretary appears to not want to help them.
Detained in Dubai, a campaign group working closely with the family of Marcus Fakana, asked David Lammy to raise the case through diplomatic channels after the apprentice builder was sentenced last month.
But the foreign secretary, who also serves as the MP of for Fakana’s north London constituency, said that Britons should ‘follow the rules’ in other countries’.
Detained in Dubai blasted the statement as untrue.
It said: ‘It’s outrageous to remove himself from the case. He [Lammy] clearly did not want to help or have those conversations with the Dubai government.
‘He is absolutely fine to see a young British tourist jailed for relations with someone who was one month away from being 18, simply saying you should follow the law.’
It comes after lawyer David Haigh, who is advising the Fakana family, warned that Fakana could have his sentence increased to up to 20 years.
If the girl was still in Dubai, she would have been arrested too.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, Haigh said: ‘The maximum sentence for a case like this is 20 years.
‘It is always seen that the prosecutor really decides the sentence, but this was a low one for them.
‘The worry is that they will not want to let this go and look weak. They may want to show they have fully upheld the law to everyone watching.
‘Marcus will play almost no part in any prosecution appeal.
‘He won’t be allowed to talk or address the judge and everything will be in Arabic anyway. There won’t be a translator.
‘He’ll probably be pushed into court for a minute and then pushed straight out again.’
He added: ‘The days ahead are fraught with difficulty.’
Marcus and his family are now hoping for a pardon from Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum.
