Get-out-of-jail cards in UAE: where do you apply?

[StarWinder]

"Award-winning producer Dallas Austin", who has pleaded guilty to the attempted importation and possession, is now apparently seeking a royal pardon ..... and looks set to get it :yuk:

http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/9307

I wonder whether similarly unfortunate importers of banned substances into the UAE, albeit from less glamourous backgrounds (lets say some Pakistani labourer bringing in some sheesha tobacco from NWFP), will be considered in the same stroke ;)

Dallas Austin was caught brining in the stuff when he arrived for Superbitch, wooops, correction: Supermodel Naomi Campbell's recent birthday bash.

[White Knight]

Should have been given double the usual jail term - after all the idiot is supposed to be a role model to the younger generations:mad:

Better still, just shoot the w@nker:ok:

[bafanguy]

after all the idiot is supposed to be a role model to the younger generations:mad:


That's precisely the problem: he is a role model for the younger generation.

[Fish]

Are you suggesting that there are double standards in Dubai? You are not hinting that there is one rule for one and another rule for the rest? Surely not...

http://www.7days.ae/2006/07/06/four-months-for-a-life-what-kind-of-message.html

On another note, I am surprised that this has not been reported yet:

http://www.7days.ae/2006/07/06/airlines-heading-for-a-skills-storm.html

[barkingboris]

Who is implying that things are not fair in the sandpit.
Of course all the rules apply to Nationals,expats,royalty and drug taking ,bling wearing hyped up bros.Just see the links above and hey presto the answer to all legal hassles is there.
Step 1 .Become friends with a so called super bitch,sorry typo ,i meant super model.
Step 2 .Go to Karama and stock up on bling and attitude
Step 3 . Swear blindly that the drugs were brought in by mistake and that you meant to leave them at home.
Step 4 Get into the recording industry.(I once flew someone in that line therefore i am qualified)
Personally i am pissed off that the bling bro did not get to serve his 4 years.Has he been banned from entering the UAE ???:\

[CAYNINE]

.....and

"oh yeah and I didn't know that Coke was illegal in my home country too"

Yes, handed 4 years, that's the min in the UAE....then immediately pardoned, but, someone coming into the country that tests positive to codiene in their blood is deemed a user of an illegal substance and given a jail term....:ugh:

[StarWinder]

Lots of possible explanations, but glad to see all point out to the absolute impartiality of the legal system. Since this is a bro' it might just be that affirmative action works better here :yuk:

[Shark-1]

I had the misfortune of running across the said party on the way into the GH Hotel .... looks like Mr Texas drew the short straw, as the rest of the party seemed to be enjoying themselves immensley. But then I suppose sunglasses at 11pm are dress code at this wattering hole

Shark

[StarWinder]

Looks like the bro has forgotten about his ordeal in Dubai already:

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10052747.html

:D:D:D

[Dune]

July 8, 2006
That's What Friends in High Places Are For
By JEFF LEEDS and SHARON WAXMAN
LOS ANGELES, July 7 — Although collaborations happen all the time in pop music, they do not generally involve R & B hitmakers and Senator Orrin G. Hatch.
But the release of a music producer from a Dubai jail this week, quick on the heels of his conviction for drug possession, turns out to be a story of high-level string-pulling on the part of Mr. Hatch, the conservative Utah Republican and songwriter, along with Lionel Richie, the singer; Quincy Jones, the music entrepreneur; and an array of well-connected lawyers, businessmen and others, spanning cities and continents.
Dallas Austin, 35, who has produced hits for Madonna, Janet Jackson and others, flew home to Atlanta on Wednesday, after being released after midnight on Tuesday from a holding cell in a Dubai jail. Hours earlier Mr. Austin had been sentenced to four years in prison for carrying just over a gram of cocaine with him when he entered the country on May 19 to attend a birthday celebration for Naomi Campbell.
Senator Hatch made numerous phone calls on Mr. Austin's behalf to the ambassador and consul of the United Arab Emirates embassy in Washington — Dubai is one of the seven emirates — and served as an intermediary for Mr. Austin's representatives, the producer's lawyers said.
"The senator was one of a number of people who were very actively involved," said Joe Reeder, the Washington lawyer, who, with an Atlanta colleague, Joel A. Katz, spent 10 days in Dubai working to secure Mr. Austin's reprieve.
Mr. Katz, an entertainment lawyer, represents both Mr. Austin and the somewhat less musically successful Mr. Hatch, a singer and songwriter who has recorded religious-oriented albums. After hiring Mr. Katz's firm, the senator last year took in $39,092 in income from music publishing, according to financial documents filed in May under the Ethics in Government Act.
The senator declined to be interviewed or to confirm details of his efforts on Mr. Austin's behalf, but he issued a statement acknowledging his involvement and said he was asked by Mr. Austin's lawyers to help.
A spokesman for Mr. Hatch said that the senator was a proponent of rehabilitation for drug offenders, and that he had worked to revise federal sentencing guidelines regarding cocaine, and, through legislation in 2005, had advocated treatment for nonviolent offenders and the easing of restrictions on medication to treat heroin addiction.
In the statement Mr. Hatch said he was "confident that this talented young man will learn from this experience." He did not say if he requested that Mr. Austin seek treatment.
Until word of the pardon came through in a call to the One and Only Royal Mirage hotel along the Dubai beach, where Mr. Austin's lawyers waited nervously for news of their client's fate, the release of Mr. Austin was not a certainty.
"This involved multiple ambassadors, a prime minister, a prince, Lionel Richie, the senator and religious leaders in Atlanta," Mr. Reeder said.
"The uniting factor of all these people — the religious leaders, the political leaders, entertainment figures and prominent private citizens — was humanitarian considerations," he said. "Where should this man be under these circumstances?"
Randy Phillips, Mr. Richie's manager, said Mr. Austin "happened to know the right people, and better than that, the right people were ready to step out on a limb for him, which doesn't happen that often."
Although Mr. Phillips called the efforts on Mr. Austin's behalf "the difference between going home and being in 'Midnight Express' " — referring to the harrowing 1978 film about a novice American drug smuggler forsaken in the Turkish prison system — such pardons are not a rarity in Dubai, authorities said.
Mr. Austin's troubles began on May 19, when he landed in Dubai for the three-day birthday party of Ms. Campbell at the opulent Burj Al Arab hotel. While far from a household name, Mr. Austin is a leading figure in the pop music world who has worked with artists including Gwen Stefani, Michael Jackson, Pink, TLC and, lately, Mr. Richie.
According to published accounts, the police at the airport pulled Mr. Austin aside at customs and searched him, finding a small amount of cocaine. He was taken into custody and held at a detention center, the al-Rashidiya jail.
Several of the principal players in the negotiation recounted what followed, including Mr. Austin's lawyers, Mr. Richie and Mr. Phillips.
Almost immediately, several parallel initiatives were undertaken to try to influence the United Arab Emirates government to show clemency to Mr. Austin, his lawyers said.
Mr. Katz, of the firm Greenberg Traurig, hired three local lawyers, two from Dubai, and one from neighboring Bahrain, who ensured the reduction of the initial charge of drug trafficking to mere possession, the lawyers said. Drug trafficking can carry a life sentence in the United Arab Emirates, while possession carries a much shorter jail sentence. Discussions began over securing a pardon for Mr. Austin, focusing on the argument that he had carried only a small amount of drugs for personal use.
Mr. Katz also contacted colleagues, including Mr. Reeder in Greenberg Traurig's Washington office. A senior lawyer in the same office, Nancy Taylor, worked for many years on Mr. Hatch's staff in the Senate. Ms. Taylor enlisted Mr. Hatch, who is influential in Dubai because of his support for the United Arab Emirates-based company DP World in the controversy earlier this year over its contract to manage important American ports.
At the time of the controversy earlier this year, which resulted in the jettisoning of the contract, Mr. Hatch said the United Arab Emirates was a good friend to the United States. "We don't want to kick the moderate Arab nations in the face," he said at the time.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jones, the legendary producer, and his friend Joe Robert, a Virginia real estate investor with interests in the Persian Gulf, became involved. Mr. Jones has played mentor to an array of current young pop and R&B stars, including Mr. Austin. Mr. Robert is also a friend of Mr. Austin's.
Mr. Jones and Mr. Robert began making calls to their contacts in the Middle East, including senior officials in the United Arab Emirates. Reached this week on a yacht off the coast of Spain, where he was with Mr. Jones, Mr. Robert said: "I know Dallas Austin; I consider him a very fine, upstanding individual, notwithstanding the mistake he made." He added, "This is not someone that belongs in a prison anywhere."
Meanwhile, other efforts continued, including a call from Mr. Katz to Prince Abdullah of neighboring Bahrain, and from Mr. Reeder to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was consulted for a legal reference. Some of the principals said they believed that Mr. Austin's pardon had been secured from early on. Still, uncertainty weighed heavily on others, particularly Mr. Austin's lawyers.
Enter Mr. Richie, who enjoys a cult status throughout much of the Arab world and had performed twice this year in Dubai, where he has met various senior government officials.
In an interview Mr. Richie said that Mr. Austin's advisers arranged for the United Arab Emirate's consul in Washington, Abdulla Ali Alsaboosi, to call Mr. Richie for a character reference. "It was, 'Tell me what kind of guy is Dallas Austin,' " Mr. Richie said. "I said: 'Listen, this is a great guy. A gangster, a hoodlum, a thug, he's not.' "
Last Sunday Mr. Austin pleaded guilty to possessing 1.26 grams of cocaine and capsules of Ecstasy, telling the court he did not mean to break the law. The stage was set for a pardon by the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. It came four hours after the plea, Mr. Austin's lawyers recalled. What remained was to execute the edict.
But that didn't happen until after the sentencing on Tuesday morning. Shortly after midnight, as American revelers half a world away celebrated Independence Day, Mr. Katz and Mr. Reeder got the call at their beachside hotel.
The lawyers quickly gathered their things and rushed to the airport, where they met Mr. Austin and boarded the next flight to New York.
On Friday Mr. Austin released a statement that said in part: "This unfortunate experience has had a profound effect on me, and I regret any grief caused to my family, friends and business associates."
The Dubai government gave no reason for the pardon. "In an issue like this it is not unusual," said Lt. General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, head of Dubai Police, who said he was speaking in general terms and could not discuss the case in detail. "It is preferable to me that a foreigner who is caught in something like this be returned home rather than be kept here in prison for four years, costing us lots of resources."
Mr. Tamim noted, however, that Mr. Austin had technically been deported and would most likely not be allowed to return to Dubai.

[BahrainLad]

Utterly disgusting. :mad: :mad:

[Al Fakhem]

http://www.7days.ae/2006/10/12/three-months-for-a-life.html

For those of you less familiar with the "justice" system in UAE: if the reverse had occured and the expat had been the perpetrator killing a local, there would - first and foremost - have been a demand for 'blood money' amounting to at least Dhs 200,000 (about $ 45,000) before going to jail, paying a fine and, finally, being deported :yuk:

[wingslow]

If you are in any doubt about how the police/legal system works in Dubai........just have a read of the following from Emirates Today newspaper (5th October 2006)


UAE women beaten by their husbands are encouraged not to take any legal action if their wounds heal within 20 days, says a social worker with Dubai Police.
“When women come to us, we send them to the forensic medicine doctors who examine them and give their report within a couple of days,” said Fatma Al Shaibani, a social worker with the Dubai Police Human Rights Department.
“If the report says the wounds will heal within 20 days, we call the husband and wife and invite them to try and solve the problem in the station. If he agrees to this, we make him sign an agreement not to beat his wife again and instead do the things she wants.
“We also make the wife sign an agreement saying she will listen to her husband and not irritate him on purpose. However, if the wounds take more than 20 days to heal, we file a case against the husband,” she added.
She said the vast majority of men who beat their wives come from families where their fathers hit their mothers.
A staggering 90 per cent of men encountered by the police for such crimes fit into this category, while the other 10 per cent are made up of people who said work pressure and other problems were to blame.
“Even if the husband was educated and intelligent, we find that he beats his wife as he learnt this from his father,” said Al Shaibani.
She added they do so because visual memories are stronger than any other type of memory. “That is why many health experts say the first three years of a child’s life is so important as they build their personalities during this time,” she said.
Al Shaibani said her department has to deal with many cases each week involving both UAE nationals and expatriates.
“We found that national men who beat their wives were mainly sons of expatriate mothers and aged below 30 years of age.
“That is why it is always better to have equality between the husband and wife to guarantee a stable married life as well as family life for the children,” she said.
Al Shaibani went on to say the women who were beaten fell into two categories.
“There are two types of women: those who keep quiet when their husbands beat them, and those who complain to the police,” she said. She added that most of the women who complain to the police do so in order to solve the problem. “They try to avoid such behaviour in the future by allowing themselves and their husbands to get consultation in the social section of the police station,” she said. “The other type of women are those who seek police help when the problem between her and her husband has reached the courts. She needs the police report showing her husband beat her in order to get a divorce. This represents almost 50 per cent of the cases we see.” She pointed out the cases they receive are almost always serious. “We see cases where women suffer from serious injuries such as bleeding, eye injuries, and wounds to the head, although it is rare to see a women with broken bones,” Al Shaibani said.



20 days is a lot of healing!:sad:

[Al Fakhem]

For anyone still harbouring any illusions about the impartiality of the UAE legal system:

http://www.7days.ae/en/2007/02/27/dubai-lifeguard-receives-life-term.html


Black American music industry "celebrity" caught with 1.26 grams of cocaine gets 4 years and an immediate pardon. Ukrainian lifeguard caught with 2 grams of hashish gets life :yuk:

[divinesoul]

Hi
Just my views so dont bite me.

In the middle east especially the GCC region it doesnt matter u are good at your job or u have 10 Phds in your chosen profession.all that matters is where u come from.

Except if u are employed in the oil/gas industry and a few exceptional companies most of the other companies discriminate u according to nationality. This is the same thing all over the gulf.
Hell what am i talking here correction not ony companies the judicial/law enforcement,u want to get a driving licence everything and i mean everything in the GCC region relates to where u come from.

Here is the social heirarchy

First preference is given to that particular country's citizen,
then GCC national,
then arabic speaking people like the palestinians,egyptians,sudanese etc etc,
then comes the westerners(especially if you are white skinned,but then again most westerners come to Gulf if and only if they get a good salary package that comes with goodies),
then comes asians like Indians,fillipinas etc etc.

And there is another class of people who are treated the worst:-the construction workers who build all the infrastructure.
I really feel sorry for these guys how they get treated badly.some of these guys take huge loans to pay of the agent who arranges for the job in the gulf.

If you want to work and live in the middle east u will have to close your eyes and ears and collect ur paycheck at the end of every month.


Cheers.

[Hamid_27]

true say devinesoul, only a matter of time till the tables are turned:ouch:.