The Real Story

First I have to emphasize that there is no words to describe the shock that hits you as you’re sitting at your desk in your office, drinking your morning coffee and skimming through the papers before you get busy, only to find such atrocious accusations made against you. I don’t remember feeling shame, and embarrassment like this any other time in my life, despite the anonymity granted to me in the wording. What should have been published in both papers, if anything at all…

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UAE Courts Become Means of Harassment
By Staff Reporter
UAE

A teenager is being harassed by attempted prosecution throughout UAE courts by a man whose marriage proposal she rejected. The Canadian teenager, known only as A.L. initially met the accuser A.A. when she was asked by a friend known as E.W., to volunteer any free time from her fulltime job to help manage and organize an aspiring marketing company which was based in R.A.K. but seeking to infiltrate the Dubai market. A.L. agreed to help, but never signed any official contract, nor did she verbally offer any commitment to the task. Over time, A.A., the owner of said company became possessive of A.L. calling her at all hours of the night, purchasing jewelry for her and appearing uninvited at gatherings where A.L. was.

After multiple refusals of gifts and when A.L. refused the marriage proposal offered by A.A., his obsessive behavior became almost hysterical. At one point he confided in A.L. that he was a former assassin with international ties, and even provided a photograph of himself along side a number of well known terrorists. He explained he was currently residing in the UAE because he had recently been diagnosed with Cancer and could no longer lead the life he once held.

A.L. finally decided to sever all ties shortly after hearing this confession, when A.A. again appeared unexpectedly in a restaurant and invited himself to join the very table where A.L. was having an intimate dinner with a male friend. A.L. was very careful about how she went about severing ties, due to her extensive fear or this man. She informed A.A. personally that she would no longer help with his company and she requested that he simply leave her alone. Initially, A.A. showed no reaction. A.L. transferred any ‘company’ materials that were in her possession to E.W. who was still volunteering work for A.A., and asked that E.W. return everything to A.A. and inform her once this was done.

On the day that E.W. returned materials to A.A., A.A. calmly spoke a number of threats to E.W. directed towards A.L., for abandoning him. Included in these threats was that A.A. would open a fictitious prostitution case against A.L. in R.A.K. to insure A.L. would suffer, as well as a singular death threat made in language that only A.L. would understand, as only A.L. had been privileged to information on A.A.’s former life.

Upon learning about these threats A.L. went to the police with the intention of filing a complaint and getting a restraining order (if they existed here), to assure her of some sort of protection. The officers convinced A.L. that she must open a case against A.A. despite A.L.’s adamant will not to offend this man. At the persistence of the police Captain A.L. obliged, only to learn that the case was rejected by prosecution weeks after the fact, when A.L. was served papers for a case filed against her for theft, by A.A. in R.A.K. Upon enquiry, A.L. was informed that the case was rejected after the prosecution called A.A. in for questioning and decided witnesses testimonies were false, without contacting A.L. or any of the witnesses to A.A.’s threats.

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The case that was opened against me in R.A.K. was based purely on a forged contract stating I had taken 25 sales contracts in addition to undertaking legal responsibility for all contracts that were issued to other people involved with the company. My signature had been forged on photocopied ‘evidence’. And there was no convincing the judge of the forgery.

In fact, there were more than 200 contracts between myself and other people involved. But none of A.A.’s sales representatives were able to sell a single one, due to discrepancies between English & Arabic translations and the lacking clarity of the contract details. I had returned almost a hundred of them through E.W. on the day A.A. made his initial threats towards me.

When the case was opened against me in R.A.K., I was considered the primary accused due to this one forged document and A.A.’s assurance that I was the ‘guilty’ one. He was requesting a harsher punishment, for me than the others. In addition to me, there were two other girls being accused of assisting my theft, E.W. and Z.D. (that friend of mine I’ve mentioned is in Egypt). Also accused alongside was a male called K.S. In total, that makes four of us and not three as Al Bayan stated. We can only assume the girls were dragged into this for their initial statements given concerning A.A.’s threats and the guy K.S. because he severed all ties with A.A. and his company around the same time.

At the time of publishing in both newspapers, the cases had already been taking place for a number of months.

A.A.’s company did not go bankrupt due to any misconduct, but rather A.A.’s company was never actually established in R.A.K., had been ‘run’ on borrowed money from his sponsor which he failed to pay back. In addition, A.A. failed to pay his lawyer fees, and ended up changing lawyers three or four times during the whole ordeal (which his lawyers cursed him about during the hearings on more than one occasion).

Even though the case itself was this shoddy, the R.A.K. court was such a mess the judge was ready to declare us all guilty and issue our sentences when he was cut off, not by a lawyer, or a translator even, but rather by Z.D.’s boyfriend, who had driven her there on this day. This man, who had not been to a single hearing prior, but knew of the events about as immediately as they happened, argued with the judge for the greater part of an hour before convincing the him to review the hearing files from the beginning before giving his verdict.

For that day, F. became our hero. He literally saved our lives, doing more than any of our lawyers, any embassy, or any rationality could accomplish with nothing more than stubborn adamancy.

The case was finally thrown out, but A.A. didn’t give up. He attempted to appeal the case, calling on only myself in R.A.K. but didn’t succeed. In addition, he attempted to open numerous cases against me in Dubai, and even sought after Abu Dhabi courts where he attempted to open a similar case against me only in the amount of 1 million dirhams. The case in Abu Dhabi was going to go through, when at the last moment the courts realized they had no jurisdiction since neither the company or my residence or anything to do with it happened in Abu Dhabi.

I ended up visiting the human rights department in Dubai police numerous times, even after my marriage and while fully pregnant to put an end to this man’s perpetual harassment of me. At one point, he blatantly bribed my husband and I, in front of the Human Rights officials, stating that he would cease opening cases if we agreed to pay an enormous lump sum to him in cash. We refused, and UAE law had no clause that would put an end to this. Nothing stopped him – until that initial company sponsor and a couple of his lawyers (and it was rumored a bank as well, but I can’t be sure now) filed their own cases him for non-payment of fees and he evidently skipped the country. I’ve not heard from him since.

This ladies and gentlemen, is the truth about those wonderful ‘reports’ given in the local media. If you don’t believe me, I’ve got all the court papers, including copies of transcription of the hearings and any one of you are welcome to come on by and take a peek – though Arabic literacy is a must, since there’s no English.

And you all wonder why I’m fucked in the head! This is ONE story. And I have me a whole collection.

**Again, forgive the atrocious use of language and/or typing. I didn’t sleep a wink last night. The explanation may come later – if I can be bothered to type it out.