A London court ruled on the high-profile case of a dead tourist who stopped in Dubai for a few days on his way to Indonesia, but was arrested by the emirate’s police and died a few days later in a Dubai prison after being beaten by guards.
The tragic incident happened back in April 2011, but only now, 11 years later, the Walthamstow Coroner’s Court in London concluded that the tourist was beaten to death by prison guards and starved to death. The 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 accusation 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 newspaper said.
When the beaten man was on the brink of death, another Brit called his relatives from the precinct and informed them that the tourist was being beaten, starved, and kept in terrible conditions. “You have to get help—if this continues, Lee could die. He was brutally beaten by the police, he is in a very bad condition. Call for help and ask the British Embassy to call for help immediately,” he hastened to say.
In a second call the next morning, the family was told: “Dubai police beat him badly, he was not fed or drunk, he was in solitary confinement in handcuffs, with shackles on his ankles. He sometimes comes to consciousness, then loses it. He has blood running down his face and chest due to an injury to his nose, a cut can be seen in the temple area on his head.”
After this report, an employee of the British Foreign Office came to the prison but was told that Brown was asleep and was chased away. When the family arrived in the emirate, it was too late, and the traveler died. According to local police, Brown “beat himself to death,” allegedly “throwing himself on the floor, jumping on chairs, and sustaining superficial injuries to his face, arms, and chest.”
It turned out that the UAE authorities during the entire investigation did not provide a video recording of the alleged incident or the conditions of the Briton’s stay in the police station, despite the UK’s request for this. The British side repeatedly refused, citing that the footage was “too grainy” to release. Although, at the same time, the Dubai police claimed that the video showed how the detained traveler was beating himself, “throwing his hands.”
In turn, the businessman’s family accused British Foreign Office officials of not doing enough to prevent the death and “putting diplomatic relations ahead of Mr. Brown’s well-being.” “I am concerned that protecting the safety of British people is not as important to embassy staff as diplomatic relations with their hosts. I feel disappointed that every piece of information came not from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but from prisoners and well-wishers at great risk to themselves,” the victim’s mother was outraged.