Nineteen-year-old Marcus Fakana has now been released from a hellish Dubai prison, following what has been a traumatic year for the teenager after he was jailed for having sex with another teen
British teen Marcus Fakana has at last been freed from a Dubai prison – and it’s likely his 12 months of hell will have resulted in significant trauma.
Nineteen-year-old Marcus, from Tottenham, north London, had been staying with family in the United Arab Emirates city when he struck up a holiday romance with another teenager, who was also from London, at the Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah.
The pair had consensual sex, but as the girl was still a few weeks off her 18th birthday, the then 18-year-old Marcus faced severe consequences under the harsh legal system of the UAE, where sex between under-18s is illegal.
Local police officers were tipped off by the girl’s mother, and Marcus was put behind the bars of the notorious al-Awir prison, where he spent his birthday and New Year’s far from home, in squalid and dangerous conditions.
READ MORE: Marcus Fakana: Teen jailed in Dubai over holiday romance freed by royal pardon
Holiday romance gone wrong
Marcus and the girl had intended to continue their relationship once they returned to the UK. However, everything changed on August 31, 2024, when, while still on holiday, Marcus was taken into police custody.
Speaking previously about the summer fling, Marcus told the Mirror: “We had a wonderful time. I couldn’t wait to see her again. Then police knocked on our hotel door.”
For three long days, Marcus was held at the “notorious” Al Barsha Police Station, where, according to the campaign group Detained in Dubai, he was unable to make a phone call or even speak with his worried parents. And things got even worse from there.
After being arrested, it was expected that Marcus would be handed a suspended sentence for the consensual act and allowed to fly home. Instead, a judge ordered that the construction apprentice be locked up for one year in the infamous al-Awir prison.
In December 2024, Marcus stated that he had been “shocked beyond belief” by the sentence. Speaking previously to the Detained in Dubai while on bail, Marcus pleaded for mercy from Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, the absolute ruler of Dubai, expressing that he had not intended to break any laws.
He begged, “My family and I are devastated and in shock. I never intended to break the law. It didn’t occur to me at the time, and for that, I’m sorry. I am asking His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, to please forgive me and pardon me. Let me go home. Please give me my life back.”
Sentence horror
Back in January, friends and supporters gathered in Westminster to call for Marcus’ release, with many condemning his harsh sentence as an injustice
CEO Radha Stirling, of Detained in Dubai, an advocacy group that played an important role in bringing Marcus home, said at the time: “Marcus has been in jail for over a month now. Marcus spent New Year’s and his birthday behind bars in Dubai, desperately hoping for a pardon.
“He wasn’t aware the girl was slightly under 18, and he didn’t intend to break the law. He didn’t intend to offend the country or break the law, and we’d like nothing more than to see him reunited with his family and back in London.”
She added, “Their relationship was completely legal in the UK, and it is easy to see how tourists can get in trouble. Marcus is, of course, very thankful to the public for all of the support, and he has received so many letters from people.
“He’s positive that he will get a pardon, and that’s what he’s focused on right now. It’s obviously a very traumatic time and experience. Keep writing to your MPs, keep boycotting Dubai and keep making sure this is at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts while he is in prison. Let’s not forget about him.”
Cruel conditions
Located some 30km from influencer hotspot Dubai, al-Awir Central Prison is a far cry from the luxury shopping malls and high-end restaurants associated with the glamorous city. According to a report earlier this year, rape is an “every day occurrence” at the jail, with both inmates and guards subjected to frequent violent assaults.
Male prisoners must have shaved heads at all times, while female inmates, who are kept in separate buildings, reportedly have to wear head coverings. They are packed into overcrowded cells, with as many as 20 inmates battling for three beds.
In an interview with The Independent in 2017, ex-managing director of Leeds United, David Haigh, who was held for nearly two years on trumped-up fraud charges, described the conditions he faced while locked up in Dubai.
According to David: “The only way to describe being in prison in Dubai is hell. I was held for 22 months and I’ll never forget it – the stench, the dirt, the smell, the heat, and the lack of any information whatsoever.”
Remembering how he was punched, Tasered, beaten and raped during his time in a cell, David reflected: “The worst of this abuse was perpetrated by the prison guards and police. I lost a lot of weight through stress.
“Once, when I asked for some painkillers, a guard hit me over the head with a broom handle. When someone’s beating you or hurting you in whatever form, in a weird way, you can deal with that. What I found more harrowing was seeing them do it to other prisoners in front of everyone.”
Some prisoners have been forced to endure horror illnesses without being offered medical care. Others have allegedly been tortured into giving confessions. Karl Williams, a Brit who was locked up at the prison for a year in 2012, had electric shocks administered to his testicles and saw men being stabbed to death.
In a memoir detailing his ordeal, he said: “I saw men get stabbed in the neck and others sliced down their faces. Blood splattered every surface as prisoner after prisoner was sliced.” Williams, along with fellow Brits Grant Cameron and Suneet Jeerh, were reportedly given electric shocks and had guns held to their heads.
Mr Williams wrote: “They pulled down my trousers, spread my legs and started to electrocute my testicles. It was unbelievably painful. I was so scared. I started to believe that I was going to die in that room.”
In another terrifying case, Suneet Jeerh, a 25-year-old man from Ilford, east London, was locked up in 2013 after being arrested with two pals from Wanstead who cops caught with “spice” – a synthetic form of cannabis – in their car. His sister, Davena Kumar, said conditions at the prison were horrific and that her brother, who appeared “skinny” and “not himself” when she went to visit him, was allegedly forced to watch other men being raped as a “lesson”.
Inmate Dinchi Lar spent three months at the jail after she shared a video of fellow Nigerian passengers who, like her, had been detained for hours on arrival to Dubai Airport. She was arrested, charged and sentenced for “breaching the privacy of government employees at Dubai airport’ and ‘sharing a video of them online without their consent”.
“I was really shocked. I didn’t commit murder, I didn’t steal… I posted a video of harassment of myself and my fellow countrymen,” she told ITV. “It was the most frightening experience of my life, absolute torture, and all because I went to the police about what happened in the hotel room,” she told The Sun.
“I will never forget the jail, it’s the worst place I have ever been. They kept the lights off in the day so we’d be eating in pitch blackness. Then they turned them on at night so no one could sleep,” she added.
Describing the conditions as “demoralising”, “humiliating”, and “traumatising”, Dinchi, who claims she only saw the sun once for 15 minutes during her three-month stretch, said: “There’s nothing like personal space… you are sleeping and somebody is in your face. You’re literally sleeping on top of another person.”
Harrowing rapes
Speaking with the Ilford Recorder, Marcus’ sister Davena Kumar revealed that her brother had been separated from friends and forced to watch other prisoners being raped.
Davena told the publication: “He’s sharing a cell with someone who’s been sentenced for life. They’ve made him watch other men being raped like it’s a lesson.’
Opening up about Marcus’ condition one month into his sentence, Davena shared: “He was skinny and he wasn’t himself. He was banging on the door, calling my name, and I just wanted to hug him.”
Return home and lasting trauma
Remarking upon Marcus’ return home, Detained in Dubai CEO Radha described the teenager as an “extraordinary young man caught in a deeply unjust system”.
Radha said, “Marcus should never have been put through this. He was supposed to spend a short few days with his family, but ended up spending nearly a year in the tourist destination. We are thrilled that after an intensive campaign, he was officially pardoned and is home safe, surrounded by those who love him.
“This was an extraordinary young man caught in a deeply unjust system. We thank everyone who stood by Marcus and helped bring him home.”
While celebrating that Marcus is now “back where he belongs”, Radha went on to emphasise the “trauma” he’s been left with, due to the “severe” impact of the decision.
She added, “Marcus is back where he belongs. But no one should have to endure this. He was 18 at the time, and the British woman involved is now 18 too, a fact she did not divulge to him at the time. We hope his story will prompt serious reconsideration of the UK’s travel advice and its engagement with the UAE on human rights issues.
“Dubai could have chosen to fine and to deport him. Instead, the 18-year-old was sentenced to one year in prison. The impact on his life has been severe and there was no need for him to endure such trauma.”
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READ MORE: UK teen jailed in Dubai for holiday romance pleads with Sheikh to let him go