Holding Hands, Drinking Wine and Other Ways to Go to Jail in Dubai
New York Times
Radha Stirling, a British lawyer, says she has represented hundreds of Westerners who have been jailed in Dubai for behavior that is usually permitted there.
“You go there and its facade is that all of this is legal, everyone is doing it, you think it’s O.K.,” said Ms. Stirling, who runs a British-based group, Detained in Dubai, that publicizes such cases. “But you offend someone and you’re the one who gets it.”
Two recent cases, both handled by Ms. Stirling, have aroused widespread ire in Britain, which has more nationals living in Dubai than any other Western country.
“The U.A.E. government is just a huge public relations entity,” Ms. Stirling said. “If they think a case is going to harm them, the government will speak to the police and get the charges dropped.”