As many as 70 Britons have been locked up within the United Arab Emirates for filming Iranian attacks on the Middle Eastern country.
British tourists, expats and cabin crew are being held in overcrowded police cells and will face ten years in jail for breaching laws around protecting ‘national security and stability’.
Campaign groups say the legal system is swamped with cases and a few are being denied sleep, food and medicine in detention.
They’re accusing the UAE of attempting to protect their ‘rigorously constructed brand’ as a glamorous and protected travel spot, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Laws within the Gulf State prohibit publishing or sharing material that would disturb public security, and the British embassy has previously warned expats to not take pictures or share images of Iranian missiles.
Those nearby to an Iranian strike are sent a text message in each Arabic and English saying: ‘Photographing or sharing security or critical sites, or reposting unreliable information, may end in legal motion and compromise national security and stability.’
Even passively receiving a picture is deemed illegal under the strictest laws, which could carry a ten-year jail term or a effective as much as £200,00.
Dubai Watch CEO David Haigh is representing eight arrested Britons and says local lawyers have told him 35 Brits have been detained in Dubai, with similar numbers in Abu Dhabi.
His human rights group says that those arrested are facing months in detention before being charged since the system is so overwhelmed.
Others have been released on bail but have had their passport confiscated so that they cannot leave.
Campaigners have claimed that some Britons have been made to sign Arabic statements they don’t understand.
Radha Stirling of the Detained In Dubai group told the Mail on Sunday: ‘British residents are being held in overcrowded conditions, denied medication, and pressured to sign confessions without legal representation.
‘This can be a serious failure of protection. Immediate and robust diplomatic intervention is required to safeguard their welfare and secure their release.
‘These will not be criminals, but bizarre tourists, staff and residents who acted without malicious intent.’
Access to British consular staff is known to be ‘restricted or outright denied’ for those arrested.
The Foreign Office just isn’t routinely alerted all arrests and a few are advised to not contact the Embassy since it could extend their case.
Officials consider just five British detainees are receiving consular help for taking pictures.
One Brit being detained within the UAE is a London-based air steward for budget airline FlyDubai.
It is known he took an image of the damage caused when an Iranian drone struck near Dubai airport on March 7 and sent it to colleagues, asking if the world was protected.
Police later checked his phone and arrested him.
An expat lawyer living in Dubai can be amongst those arrested under national security laws.
Detained In Dubai also say they’re helping a 60-year-old British tourist who was charged with 20 others after footage of Iranian attacks was found on their phones.
He faces two years in jail and a effective as large as $40,000 despite deleting the footage.
It is claimed that UAE police will demand to leaf through the phones of individuals near the location of a missile attack and arrest anyone caught with photos of the strikes.
Officers reportedly track down and arrest individuals who receive photos through apps like WhatsApp.
Mr Haigh, who was tortured in a Dubai jail, said: ‘Dubai is a company, a gleaming global brand eager to keep the facade intact.
‘So, once tourists and expats take photos of a missile intercept, or a drone strike, they turn into the enemy.
‘They’re arrested, vanished, threatened, charged, forced to report friends, and face years in jail.’
There have been greater than 240,000 Britons living within the United Arab Emirates before the beginning of the war with Iran.
The Emirati embassy in London said people had been warned about taking or sharing photos from ‘incident sites’, adding: ‘Disseminating such materials or inaccurate information can incite public panic and create a misunderstanding of the UAE’s actual situation.’
The Foreign Office said: ‘We’re supporting a lot of British nationals within the UAE who’ve been detained or arrested.
‘We expect full consular access to British nationals. The British Ambassador commonly speaks to the authorities about access.’
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