Trey Songz’s bodyguard jailed in Dubai amid warnings over sharia legislation

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By Dana Kennedy

You may examine into Dubai — however there’s an opportunity you gained’t take a look at, no less than not for a 12 months or so.

R&B singer Trey Songz’s bodyguard Cornell Whitfield is the newest Western vacationer to run afoul of the sharia-based judicial system in Dubai, one of many seven emirates that make up the federation of the United Arab Emirates.

It’s a system critics say unfairly targets unwitting vacationers, particularly these perceived as having some cash.

Miami native Whitfield, 40, the daddy of a younger son who has acted as a bodyguard for a lot of celebrities together with Lil’ Kim, Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs and San Francisco 49ers extensive receiver Deebo Samuel, was sentenced to a year in prison last week for allegedly “slapping” a male fan who tried to achieve out and contact Songz final March at a Dubai lodge.

Whitfield is only one in an extended line of Westerners who’ve discovered themselves dealing with a nightmare of purple tape, arrests and generally prolonged detention for what look like largely spurious claims.

Radha Stirling, who’s run the location Detained in Dubai since 2008 when she first helped a pal who was arrested in Dubai, has aided what she says has been “1000’s” of vacationers arrested on flimsy pretenses there.

Stirling advised The Put up that the majority Westerners are naive about what awaits them in Dubai.

Foreigners, she mentioned, are focused by each Dubai residents and expats there who know they will go to the police and make an accusation, typically with no proof, and instantly get the cops and native prosecutors on their facet.

The accusers typically ask for big sums of cash in trade for dropping costs, she added. Many vacationers choose to go to court docket, not realizing that judges virtually routinely facet with the accusers, even when they know the victims are being extorted.

“Whoever takes the primary police criticism is often favored within the final result,” Stirling advised The Put up.

“So if I’m the one who takes a criticism to the police station, I’m in all probability going to win that felony case. Guests assume Dubai is this contemporary, luxurious place they usually assume the justice system is just like the West’s when it most positively is just not.”

Earlier this month, New York Metropolis school scholar Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, 21, who had been sentenced to a 12 months in jail, managed to get freed after a “hellish” 5 months in Dubai that started when she was arrested for touching a safety guard’s arm on the airport in July.

A 29-year-old Houston girl named Tiarra Allen, who was recognized on-line because the “Sassy Trucker,” managed to flee the nation in August after being stranded in Dubai for months over an altercation at a automotive rental company.

Stirling’s group helped each girls win launch.

In 2022, a UK coroner mentioned that the International Workplace wasn’t doing sufficient to warn Britons in regards to the dangers of visiting Dubai after a London resident, Lee Bradley Brown, “in all probability” died from beatings and neglect whereas in police custody there. Brown had been arrested after a verbal altercation with lodge staffer in Dubai in 2011.

Millionaire British businessman Albert Douglas, 62, a longterm UAE resident, has been jailed in Dubai since 2019 when he was arrested as a result of his son’s flooring firm failed there and officers deemed him answerable for the money owed.

Douglas has coronary heart issues, his son Wolfgang Douglas advised The Put up, and has been tortured repeatedly whereas in Dubai prisons. To this point the household has spent thousands and thousands to attempt to get him out however nothing works, Wolfgang mentioned.

“In the event you’re a wealthy white particular person, neglect it,” he mentioned. “They blackmail you for cash and preserve elevating the quantity and including on (jail) sentences. It’s a complete nightmare.”

The potential bother dealing with vacationers in Dubai is in odd and stark distinction to the large $8.7 trillion financial program launched late last year by the emirate’s highly effective ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, with billions going to prioritize tourism. Dubai is amongst a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula.

Whitfield contacted Stirling when he returned to Dubai just lately, fully unaware that he was in authorized sizzling water stemming from an incident that came about in March in entrance of the 5 Palm Jumeirah lodge.

Whitfield was convicted of assault after he slapped a Jordanian man who was drunk and appearing in a threatening and aggressive means towards Songz.

The person initially demanded $60,000 to drop the felony allegations, however Whitfield didn’t have the cash. Stirling mentioned he assumed the Dubai justice system was honest and would acquit him as a result of he mentioned he was appearing in self-defense on behalf of his shopper.

“His temper goes up and down,” Stirling mentioned. “He’s hopeful that his lawyer will get him out on attraction however there’s no assure of that.”

The Put up has reached out to the UAE’s consulate in New York for remark.