As most families look forward to spending a few days together this Christmas, some are dealing with the glaring absence of their loved-ones – who are detained in Dubai
Desperate families of detainees stranded in Dubai jail cells have been left without hope they will ever see their loved ones again as they face Christmas alone.
Six people – Albert Douglas, Marcus Fakana, Stuart Quiney, Maurice Kevin O’Rourke, Alma McCabe and Robert Dobbs – will spend the festive period locked away as they continue to fight to return to their home nations. Some of them, like Marcus Fakana, who was arrested following a consensual sexual encounter with a girl of his age during a Dubai holiday, have a rough idea on when their imprisonment might end.
Fakana, 18, from Tottenham, north London, has been unable to leave the country since September, and was sentenced to one year in prison after his relationship with a fellow Londoner – who is now 18 but was 17 at the time – was reported by the girl’s mum. The relationship would have been legal in the UK, but it wasn’t in Dubai, where officials legally restrict any sexual contact outside of marriage. The families of Albert Douglas and Maurice O’Rourke don’t even have potential release dates – and they have lost hope.
Albert’s son, Wolfgang Douglas, and Maurice’s wife Pamela O’Rourke have told the Daily Mirror about their bids to free their loved ones, and how, in Mrs O’Rourke’s case, Christmas has been totally upended. Both families are receiving support from Detained in Dubai, a pressure group founded by UAE expert witness Radha Stirling.
Ms O’Rourke, 61, said her family’s home would be bare for Christmas this year as they wait for Maurice to return from Dubai, where he is being held for travelling with Cannabis products. Maurice, from Mississauga, Canada, was arrested in July this year after Dubai authorities discovered 100 grams of Cannabis products and 50 to 60 grams of CBD oil in his luggage on a stopover en route to South Africa.
Maurice, who suffers from Addison’s disease – an adrenal gland disorder that makes him more susceptible to infections – was using them for pain management. They are legal in Canada, and his wife said he never had any intention of breaking the law. He was handed a life sentence after the products were found, an appeal hearing for which his family will have to attend on Christmas Day.
As well as having to attend the hearing – which will fall on Christmas Eve in Canada – the O’Rourke family Christmas has been completely upended by having their holiday driving force taken away. Mrs O’Rourke told The Mirror her family will be waiting to celebrate Christmas until Maurice returns.
She said: “Normally our house would be decorated, Maurice would have put up all the lights. This year, truthfully, we’re going to wait and have Christmas when he’s home.” She added: “We haven’t really done anything…it just feels really hard.” Mrs O’Rourke said the family was shocked the appeal was scheduled for December 25, adding it meant they would spend much of the period waiting for updates from their lawyers.
She said Maurice’s loved ones are desperate for something to change regarding Maurice’s sentence on the day, but added that she has “given up hope”. While she continues to hang on some shreds of hope, she added: “I have to temper [my hope] because we have been hopeful so many times and that is almost harder.”
Mrs O’Rourke isn’t alone, as Wolfgang Douglas, the son of Albert Douglas, a business tycoon who once lived a life of luxury on Dubai’s Palm Islands, fears he may never see his father again. Albert, 61, was arrested in 2021 and ordered by the UAE to pay a massive £2.5 million fine due to debts amassed by his son’s company – with which he had no association.
Detained in Dubai states he was held over a bounced cheque he did not write, and claims he is being held in custody on a selection of trumped-up charges without a release date or official sentence. Wolfgang alleges his father was tortured while behind bars, and he was last year strangled with a phone cord by a crazed fellow inmate at the infamous Al Barsha prison.
In October 2023, he UAE authorities added a minimum “five additional years” to his dad’s prison sentence, and said the firm was piling on charges with new evidence while alleging officials were ransacking company accounts. Wolfgang told the Mirror he has spent more than £2 million of his own money to free his dad, and that “hope is dashed” despite having taken his case to the United Nations.
He said: “I have opportunities in front of me that I will continue to chase down, and I will look to see if there is some recourse, I will continue to fight at the United Nations, I will continue to sponsor some of my efforts that are still achievable. But hope is dashed, hope is dashed and I am very, very fearful that I will never see my father again.” He added: “I am fighting the sea and fighting the tide. I am fighting the ocean, and there is no beating the ocean.”
