days died in a Dubai prison from beatings inflicted by guards.
The tragic incident occurred back in April of the distant 2011, but only now, 11 years later, the Walthamstow Coroner's Court in London concluded that prison guards beat the tourist to death and starved him to death. Then 39-year-old tourist and businessman Lee Brown arrived in Dubai a few days before his death, never reaching his final destination. The reason for his harsh arrest was the charge of assaulting a maid at the Burj Al Arab hotel. After some time, he returned to his room, where 20 people were already waiting for him, ready to use physical force. After inflicting the first beatings, he was taken in his underwear to the infamous Bur Dubai police station, where he died five days later, the Dailystar reported.
When the beaten man was already on the verge of death, another Briton called his relatives from the station and said that the tourist was being beaten, starved and kept in terrible conditions. “You must seek help – if this continues, Lee could die. He was severely beaten by the police, he is in a very bad condition. Seek help and ask the British Embassy to seek help immediately,” he was quick to report.
During the second call the next morning, the family was given the following information: “The Dubai Police beat him very badly, he was not fed and not watered, he was in solitary confinement in handcuffs, he had shackles on his ankles. He then regains consciousness, then loses it. He has blood running down his face and chest due to a nose injury, a cut is visible in the temple area on his head.”
After this message, an official from the British Foreign Office came to the prison, but he was told that Brown was sleeping, and he was sent away. When the family arrived in the emirate, it was already late, the traveler died. According to local police, Brown “beat himself to death”, allegedly he himself “thrown to the floor, jumped on chairs and received superficial injuries to the face, arm and chest.”
It turned out that the UAE authorities during the entire investigation did not provide a video of the alleged incident or the conditions of the Briton's stay at the police station, despite the UK's requests to do so. The British side was constantly denied, citing the fact that the video was “too grainy” to give it away. While at the same time, Dubai police claimed that the video shows how the detained traveler beat himself, “spreading his arms.”
In turn, the businessman's family accused British Foreign Office officials of not doing enough to prevent death and “placed diplomatic relations above the welfare of Mr. Brown”. “I am concerned that protecting the safety of the British is not as important to embassy staff as diplomatic relations with their masters. I feel disappointed that each information came not from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but from prisoners and well-wishers at great risk to themselves,” the mother of the deceased was outraged.
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