A British national detained in Dubai has revealed his inhumane prison conditions where he says he has been forced to witness prisoners being starved, tortured and raped.
Londoner Albert Douglas, 60, was handed a £2.5 million fine after his son Wolfgang's company failed in 2019, despite committing no crime and having no role with the firm.
He lost an appeal and tried to flee the prison with the help of people smugglers, but he was caught at the border with Oman and given a three-year sentence.
The grandfather is now being held on charges of fraud and faces another three years in Dubai Central Prison, from which he is unlikely to be released without the UK government's intervention.
He has reportedly been beaten by prison guards, denied his heart medication and forced to suffer inhumane conditions, including drinking from a toilet.
In September, Mr Douglas was reportedly admitted to a Dubai hospital for surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder sustained in prison.
According to his son Wolfgang, he was allegedly being bullied into recording propaganda videos for local authorities in exchange for them funding medical treatment for injuries they inflicted.
In a voice recording released to The Sun Online by the human rights organisation Detained in Dubai, Mr Douglas said he had witnessed a cellmate attempt suicide.
He added: “I've seen a gay man raped and seen the systematic abuse of African and Asian people based purely and simply because of the colour of their skin."
Guards at the prison are also alleged to have burnt off a prisoner’s private parts and young men were reportedly hung upside down and beaten for “sport”.
The Brit also claimed he had been given the duty to care for the British-Australian great-grandfather, William Meyerhoff, 72, with whom he shared a “filthy” cell.
Mr Meyerhoff, who was arrested in Dubai in May during a stop-off on a flight to Australia, has dementia and has been described by his son as being “on death’s door”.
"When I met him he looked like a Jewish Holocaust prisoner of war," Mr Douglas said. "He was just skin and bones. He actually said to me one night: 'Let me die. I would be better off.’”
Representing Mr Douglas, human rights lawyer Radha Stirling of Detained in Dubai said: "Albert Douglas was beaten by prison guards, denied his heart medication and was forced to suffer inhumane conditions, including drinking from a toilet.
"He has been interrogated, threatened and suffered attempts to force him to confess to a crime he has not committed.
"Albert has maintained that he is innocent throughout, refusing to submit to pressure while putting his life at risk.”
Earlier this year, Albert’s son told LincolnshireLive that he was being held on charges of fraud, and he is unlikely to be released from the Bur Dubai prison without the UK Government's intervention.
Wolfgang, whose family splits their time between London and Retford, Nottinghamshire, claims his father has been beaten and subjected to human rights abuses in the United Arab Emirates.
He alleges: "The jails over there are not like the jails here. Torture is Monday for them.
"We went the legal road and paid around £850,000 to lawyers and because the country is run by a system known as wasta, which is all about who you know rather than what you know, a local claiming will always win.
"You have to prove your innocence in that country, completely opposite to what it is here.
The family have begged the Foreign Office for help, but Wolfgang claimed they had done “less than nothing”.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been contacted for comment.
