An 18-year-old Brit faces 20 years in prison in Dubai after being charged with having sex with a then-17-year-old during a family holiday.
Marcus Fakana, from Tottenham, London, was held in a notorious UAE prison for days after police heard of his holiday romance from her ‘strict’ mother.
The couple ‘had a wonderful time together’ on holiday in August, meeting up in secret as she feared she could not tell her mother she was seeing a boy. They hoped to continue their relationship when they were back in London.
But as the girl’s furious mother later found out and told police in Dubai about the relationship when they returned to the UK, Marcus now faces two decades inside a gruelling Dubai prison.
‘When she left, I couldn’t wait to see her again when I got home. Then suddenly, police knocked on our hotel door,’ Marcus told British-based aid organisation Detained in Dubai.
‘They said they were taking me in for questioning but wouldn’t tell me why. I couldn’t imagine what for. I was frightened and my parents were terrified.’
Dubai has only recently reformed its laws on sex outside of marriage for tourists, but upholds a strict Islamic legal system, and has no firm ruling on age of consent.
Under local law, a child is defined as a person under 18 years of age. The relationship would be legal in the UK, and the girl has since turned 18.
Marcus had joined his parents for a short holiday on August 26 when he struck up a holiday romance with a girl just months from turning 18.
‘We had a wonderful time together. We really liked each other but she was secretive with her family because they were strict,’ he said.
‘My parents knew about our relationship but she couldn’t tell hers. She had to meet me without telling them it was to see a boy.’
The pair tried to spend as much time as they could together while abroad, and hoped to get to know each other better when back in London.
She left Dubai first and they arranged to meet up.
But Marcus was ‘frightened’ when police suddenly turned up at the hotel and detained him for three days at the ‘notorious’ Al Barsha Police Station.
‘He was told his girlfriend’s mother had reported the relationship to authorities in Dubai after she had arrived back in London,’ said Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai and human rights advocate.
The organisation offers confidential legal help to people facing civil and criminal legal trouble in the UAE.
Marcus learned that she had looked at her daughter’s phone and found their chats and pictures, sharing them with Dubai police from the safety of the UK.
‘This is clearly a very strict mother to involve police in a private matter that is completely legal in the country where she lives and where the children have grown up,’ Ms Stirling warned.
‘Perhaps she wasn’t aware that she triggered the possibility of a young man of only 18 spending the next 20 years in prison.’
The family meanwhile are still stuck in Dubai, forking out £2,000 per month in the hope of reclaiming Marcus’ future.
‘My mother is a cleaner and my dad works in a warehouse. They saved up for this one-off holiday and they have now used all of their savings,’ Marcus explained.
‘The police demanded 10,000 AED for bail which I’ve been told is not normal and the costs are mounting. I’m here all alone. I pray this nightmare will be over and I’ll be home for Christmas.’
Marcus and his family are now calling on the British Foreign Secretary to help him.
‘Dubai police have the power to drop the case against Marcus and let him come home,’ Ms Stirling said.
‘This is not something we want to do to young people and we ask Mr Lammy MP to convey this message to his counterparts in the UAE.’
The UAE has only recently implemented changes allowing tourists to have sex outside of marriage – as well as more lax regulations on alcohol and vaping.
A British couple were jailed for kissing in public in 2010, and ultimately deported for violating the country’s decency laws.
Despite changes to the law, Ms Stirling warns that parents will soon ‘be scared to take their older teenagers on vacation with them where they could end up losing their lives over behaviour that’s completely legal in their own countries’.
