I jetted off on lads’ holiday… only to be arrested, tortured at ‘Dubai Alcatraz’ & threatened with death by firing squad
IT’S the playground for the mega-rich and famous, with towering skyscrapers home to glittering hotels and lavish bars where tourists and expats party the night away.
But away from the glamorous beaches, designer shops and flashy nightlife, tucked away in the desert, lies Dubai’s central prison, where inmates report being held in crowded cells and tortured by police.
That’s where Brit council worker Karl Williams found himself after a lad’s holiday took a dark turn.
He was arrested when drugs were found in the boot of his hire car, and claims he was tortured with a cattle prod, had a gun held to his head and was threatened with death by firing squad in an attempt to force him into confessing.
“I was a mess, I couldn’t stop thinking about how my daughter wouldn’t have a dad,” Karl says in new BBC Three documentary High: Surviving A Dubai Drugs Bust.
“I’d just booked to have five days in Dubai, I’d just had a baby and my mission was to have as much fun as possible, to escape reality and have one last blow out before knuckling down as a dad.
“I was preparing myself to never see my family or friends again, to never see my daughter again, to die.”
Karl had lived with his partner Amy in Dubai for a year when she fell pregnant.
Given they weren’t married, and pregnancy outside of marriage was illegal in the country, they returned to the UK to have their daughter, Faith, in July 2012.
Karl decided to jet back to the UAE shortly after the birth for one last boys’ trip with his two best friends, Grant Cameron and Suneet Jeerh.
He recalls: “I was 25, and the mission was just to have as much fun as possible for one last week.
“That started as soon as we walked out the door, we were smoking and drinking on the way to Heathrow.
“But when we arrived in the country, we were ready to show a bit of respect and be careful – living there I knew there was the Dubai they wanted you to see, and the one hidden in the sand.”
Despite an active party scene and bars and clubs which sell alcohol, the city-state dishes out hefty sentences for drinking or being drunk in a public space.
Extra-marital sex is also illegal, as was being scantily-clad at that time, though laws around dress-code have recently become a bit more relaxed.
Former Dubai journalist Tahira Yaqoob tells the documentary: “There is a dichotomy in Dubai – there’s the Islamic side which is very strict and conservative, but it also wants to be a magnet for people in the West.
“People often fall foul of the laws because they see people on the beach in their bikinis and think that therefore anything goes – but it doesn’t, and Brits get arrested for all sorts of things.”
Suspicious package
Five days into his trip, Karl, now 37, and his friends rented a car from a local man, Maz, who they met on a drunken night at the bar of The Atlantis hotel.
After the vehicle was dropped off, they claim they found a suspicious-looking package in the boot, but were told it was “legal tobacco” from the market.
They were asked to keep hold of it until they returned the car that evening.
But hours into their day of exploring their car was stormed by a group of armed men, and the boys were bundled into different vehicles before being whisked off to the desert.
I was preparing myself to never see my family or friends again, to never see my daughter again, to die
Karl Williams
Karl recalls: “There were these small glossy packaged labelled ‘Atomic’ and ‘legal in the UK’ in the boot – but when I asked Maz, he said it was local tobacco and that they would take it later.
“If it had smelt like cannabis or looked like drugs, I would’ve been suspicious, but there was none of that – so we headed off, driving around the city, which was beautiful.
“We were happy as anything having a lovely time – but when we stopped, someone pulled up and said he’d run out of petrol and was asking me for money.
“It was weird, but I handed it over. All of a sudden, if you can imagine a scene out of an action movie, I was dragged out the car and was being smacked around the face with a gun.”
‘I thought my life was over’
It was then their attackers revealed themselves as plain-clothed police officers.
They retrieved the package, which turned out to be a kilogram of Spice, a synthetic cannabis made illegal in the UAE just days earlier.
“I was assuming the worst, I thought my life was over,” Karl recalls.
“Every time I moved to speak, the man would give me a slap, one of those like you see on TV that makes people gasp, and he kept telling me I was going to die, holding a gun to my head.
“Then they took us to our hotel – they were in our room going mad, ripping things around and demanding the drugs we didn’t have, and so I knew we’d been done over, good and proper.”
Every time I moved to speak, the man would give me a slap, one of those like you see on TV that makes people gasp, and he kept telling me I was going to die, holding a gun to my head
Karl Williams
The three men were held at gunpoint while the police officers reportedly inspected their passports and searched through their belongings, torturing them to glean information.
Karl remembers: “They handcuffed me and broke my hand, and I kept telling myself, ‘You’re going to die here, you could’ve been at home with the baby’.”
“Then one pulled out a contraption with electricity buzzing at the end. I felt it on my skin, singeing my hairs – and he was evil, pure evil, a psychotic character, he jabbed me in the testicles with it.”
The device was a cattle prod, which are illegal in the UK and can dish out a maximum of 5,000 volts, strong enough to burn human flesh.
Bundled in a police van in shock, Karl, Grant and Suneet were moved to a detention facility, where they were labelled as drug traffickers following a drugs test that flagged spice in their system.
They maintained their innocence – and when their explanation fell on deaf ears, became convinced they had been set up by locals in a sting operation targeting UAE spice dealers.
‘Alcatraz of Dubai’
Laws in Dubai
The UAE is made up of seven emirates, of which Dubai is one.
Rules for travellers within the country have always been looked upon as draconian to Westerners heading to the hotspot.
However, changes to laws there have drastically altered the landscape for holidaymakers.
Boozing and living together outside marriage is now allowed in the United Arab Emirates after a historic relaxation of the country’s strict Islamic laws in 2020.
A person still must be at least 21 years old to buy alcohol legally in the UAE and anyone caught selling alcohol to someone deemed underage will be punished.
However, it can still only be consumed privately or in licensed public places.
Suicide and attempted suicide were also decriminalised, and divorce and inheritance laws were overhauled so foreigners can deal with the issues under the law in their home countries, rather than local rules.
In a major overhaul of the legal system, so-called honour killings were also criminalised, and there are harsher punishments for men who harass women.
The changes were part of the country’s drive to attract Western tourists and businesses despite the strict Sharia-based legal system.
Around 250,000 Brits live in the UAE, out of 8.4 million foreigners, and dozens have been targeted in recent years for breaking alcohol and drugs laws, or kissing in public.
While there is no official dress code as such, modesty is appreciated and advised, especially in public places.
Homosexuality remains illegal and same-sex marriages are not recognised.
Drugs are strictly forbidden and the Emirati authorities count the presence of drugs in the blood stream as possession.
Possessing and concealing money from drugs related offences, and performing transactions using money from drug-related offences are also crimes, which could lead to imprisonment and a fine.
Swearing and making rude gestures (including online) are considered obscene acts and offenders can be jailed or deported.
Taking pictures or videos of the people, especially women and children without their consent is considered to be an invasion of privacy and you might be penalised or sent to jail.
If you openly criticise or mock or insult Dubai’s royal family, law, culture, and religion you risk the chance of being arrested.
After the arrest, Karl was handed a statement in Arabic which he didn’t understand and ordered to sign it with the alleged promise of release.
All three reluctantly signed, but also wrote down the words: “I don’t understand what this means.”
Their confessions meant they could be charged with possession, use, and intent to supply.
They then faced 25-year sentences at Al Awir Central Prison and were warned they could face death by the UAE firing squad.
Tahira says: “They wanted to make an example of these men, and they were going to be ruthless in doing so.
“Compared to UK laws, they are disproportionate. The trial has no jury, there’s never any evidence heard in public and sentencing is at their whim and how the judges are.
They wanted to make an example of these men, and they were going to be ruthless in doing so
Tahira Yaqoob, former Dubai journalist
“The irony is, when you’re transferred to jail, you drive past the bling of Dubai – you keep driving into this wasteland.
“It’s really the antithesis of everything you think of Dubai, like the Dubai version of Alcatraz.”
In the months that followed, Karl tells how he received regular beatings while behind bars, and even witnessed one man stabbed to death in front of him in a prisoner fight left to play out by ruthless guards.
He says: “The prison was dirty and horrible, we were sleeping on a bit of foam on the floor, being bitten by bed bugs, and I was exhausted and drained, I felt completely done for.
“But through all of this, it was survival of the fittest. We were in the fight for our lives and any sign of weakness, we’d be the next target because it was really, really dangerous in the prison.”
Lucky escape
Their nightmare ordeal dragged on for a year.
For Karl, it was seeing his young daughter, now 11, again that kept him going – and inspired him to raise his case in the UK media, getting the attention of then Prime Minister David Cameron.
Lord Cameron raised the matter during a state visit in April 2013 by then UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the trio were eventually pardoned under a Ramadan amnesty, three months into their four-year prison sentences.
One year after their arrest, they were deported.
After their release, the human rights charity Reprieve continued to push for an independent investigation to be carried out into the use of torture by Dubai police, but the UAE authorities refused to comply.
In court, the arresting officers maintained the men were not abused or beaten and had been treated well.
Now, over a decade on, Karl understands he had a lucky escape.
He says: “I suffered a mental health battle. I had PTSD and depression, and it was intense.
I used to wake up screaming and crying, having panic attacks and not being able to breathe
Karl Williams
“I used to wake up screaming and crying, having panic attacks and not being able to breathe.
“It took time for me to realise I was alive and I was free and nothing could break me.
“But if I could go back and change anything, I just wouldn’t have got on that plane and gone to Dubai.
“I wish I would’ve just stayed at home with my baby girl.”
The BBC approached Dubai Public Prosecution for comment on the claim that Karl, Grant and Sunny had been blackmailed, but they did not issue a response.
High: Surviving A Dubai Drugs Bust is available to stream on BBC iPlayer from Monday.
