A British businessman, Albert Douglas, 58, has described being beaten and tortured in a Dubai prison after his family's fortune turned to a desperate escape attempt across the UAE-Oman border. Douglas, who once lived on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah and drove a Rolls-Royce, was forced to flee the country in February 2021 after being pursued by authorities over debts incurred by his son Wolfgang's company.
Facing a £2.5m fine and a three-year prison sentence, Douglas attempted to cross the border with the help of people smugglers. However, as he approached a hole cut in the four-metre barbed-wire fence, UAE soldiers surrounded him, shouting and firing gunshots. He was hooded and taken to an unknown location, where he says he was stripped, slapped, deprived of sleep and interrogated for several days.
Douglas was later transferred to Al Ain central prison in Abu Dhabi, where three guards entered his cell and beat him unconscious. He suffered a broken shoulder and still wakes up screaming from the ordeal. 'You just assume it's going to stop,' he said. 'It doesn't stop, but you just think it's gonna stop, and, basically, thereon after, you think you're gonna die.'
Meanwhile, his son Wolfgang, in London, desperately searched for his father, fearing he had been killed. After about 10 days, Albert managed to call his son from an unknown UAE number, saying, 'Son, I am not OK.' The family's ordeal highlights the risks faced by expats in the UAE, where the UK government often shows little interest in helping them.
