"They ended up on the beach that night by mistake. These guys were part of a group in a hotel having drinks and celebrating [on July 4]. They left the hotel and were bar hopping from 2pm and finally boarded a taxi and told the driver to take them to the Oasis Beach Hotel where Acors was staying. The driver dropped them at Jumeirah beach by mistake, since he did not understand them. They ended up at the Jumeirah beach at around 1.30am where the girl [Palmer] passed out from exhaustion and intoxication. They then lay down on the beach.
If the driver understood the instructions correctly, this whole incident would not have happened and Palmer would not have lost her job and Acors would have not been stuck in Dubai like a prisoner," Mattar said."
Damn RTA...
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omg this so made my day. i couldn't stop laughing. its just so absurd that its hilarious.
LOL! Absolutely hilarious!
Why are you guys surprised? I’ve seen enough thick taxi drivers and drunken tourists to believe that such thing could happen.
"The cabbie made me do it." I just love these defence lawyers!
Chalk it up as something else we can blame the RTA for ;-)
Isn't he the same lawyer that defended the Magic Onyx guy? He's had lots of practice getting creative!
Its just a reason to cover up that they had sex in public.
Nothing has changed.
It was also BK's fault that I didnt like my bean burger... I was supposed to have it MY WAY!
WAH!!!
did anyone actually see them have sex or is it just obvious that they did..
i mean - was anyone actually physically offended by viewing the act or is it the mere knowledge of the act that offends people's morality?
Ohlala! The kind of tales they spin for gullible folks ha! ;)
Come on now DJ, surely you can't be buying that line mate!!
BIT, you make Miss Jones laugh!
Rose, ever with the sharp eye eh! :)
Mars, long time! How's tricks with you little lady?
Lirun (allegedly) a police officer saw them behaving inappropriately, told them to stop but they were still doing whatever it was when he returned. He then arrested them.
Exactly what they were doing will, I guess, be revealed when the case is eventually heard.
It will eventually come down to the police officer's word against theirs. And they were allegedly drunk…… I wonder though, in serious cases (like homicides), vaginal swabs are taken for the confirmation of the sexual act. Could they really have done that in this case?
Hey Lirun, you are a lawyer aren’t you? What would be the police procedure to prop up the prosecution charges?
The public may not be as much offended at the sexual act as they might be offended at the assault at the police officer and allegedly calling him a "F**kin Muslim".
"He said the forensic report indicated that Palmer was in good health and that there was no evidence of any recent sexual activity, contrary to what has been stated by the Public Prosecution."
In which case this has been a farce from day 1 and it'd be very hard to take sides given the amount of misinformation.
Sure blame the cabbie.... THAT'S original..
M
Oh please, this is laughable. How can you blame the cabbie for this? :S
Your actions are your own actions.
i guess there are two major layers to this situation:
the ethical
and
the legal
frankly i dont know the exact law that supports the charges nor do i have a fair knowledge of the local legal system but i guess the questions id be asking myself would be:
(a) are these people a danger to the public or do they otherwise pose a real and present threat to society
(b) are these people worthy of incarceration or any other form of punishment for the mere transgression
(c) what was the damage that their act caused? who was harmed and how much
(d) were there any aggrevating circumstances ie the defiance of the police officer and/or the racial slur and/or clear evidence of blatant intentional disregard of the law
legal systems in the most "advanced" (and i stress the inverted commas) struggle to produce consistent outcomes and so it is not surprising that a rapidly developing jurisdiction would suffer similar unpredictability..
some of my questions above may be answered by the law.. ie there may be concepts enshrined in the law that respond to these notions..
if it is so than the law should be honoured..
however - personally - do i think people should be punished for loving? well - i can imagine better and far less punished reasons..
So it's the cabbies fault he got caught with his pants down...maybe he left his belt in the car!
They should consider themselves lucky, like to see what they would have done to them in Sharjah.
they should get the whiplash.
Lirun it all comes down to the laws of the country we're in, whether we agree with them or not.
For example, I find it strange that insulting someone, by word or gesture, can be a major offence, but it is here so I accept it.
Equally, the sentences are for each country to decide - the death penalty for drug dealing in various Asian countries is an example. In more liberal western countries the convicted receive a short jail term.
Allegedly the couple were engaged in something which is illegal in the UAE. Vince's letter to the tabloid 7Days said "I readily admit that my conduct and behaviour on the evening in question was inappropriate and beyond the bounds of acceptability in the United Arab Emirate of Dubai. Having drunk more than I should during the course of the day, a friendly encounter with a female acquaintance became overly affectionate at a time and place when we both should have known better. I am deeply ashamed of my actions and of the offence and trouble these have caused.
The laws of the land are the laws of the land, like them or not and if we don't abide by the laws of the country we're in we must accept any consequences.
I think this attorney is not making sense. What forensic report is he talking about? He must have meant the Medical Examiner's report? And I can't imagine the Public Prosecution of Dubai pressing charges without falling back upon a medical report. And he goes on to contradict his own assertion that none of the trial details should be leaked to the media when he states that the 'police officer used a flashlight to inspect the defendants'. Isn't he leaking info to the media too? And what if the police officer used a flash light? You can still see the silhouette of two figures having sex but not make out their distinctive features. The flashlight ploy is, seemingly, a pathetic attempt at red-herring.
Its RTA again?! This is a funny MATTAR....
seabea i largely agree with you.. but when you look at the laws and you wonder how they are to be applied you examin the fact scenario and consider the issues..
in a matter involving jail these are the sorts of issues id be looking at.. having said that - as i said before - the laws of the land may have some predetermined notions on these.. (i dont know how it is over there)
but there is typically some discretion..
you're right that punishment varies from place to place.. in indonesia for example.. where the "bali bombers" people who killed over 200 people(!) received barely 3 years of jail others allegedly caught with marijuana in their boogie board bag have received decades of prison..
there is also sometimes a difference between how locals and foreigners are treated by the courts.. some times for the better and sometimes for worse..
personally i believe that judges all over the world make personal statements to the public through their judgments.. and if its not through the sentence itself it may well be through the classification of the crime they are convicted for or even through the comments in the judgment..
judges do a long journey before they get to their role.. they are not just administrators.. they have a lot of room to do a lot of thinking and lets generally be thankful for that..
by the way - an insult by word being illegal is not strange AT ALL in the west..
on the contrary.. there are in many countries:
(a) laws against racial vilification
(b) laws about sexual harrassment
(c) restrictions on how you can speak to people in the work place
(d) criminal ramifications to words that can be perceived as a threat
(e) laws dealing with blackmail
(f) laws dealing with defamation and slander
western countries take words very very seriously..
i australia in particular - if im not wrong they havent even unified the defences for bad mouthing someone in the different states - leaving you exposed to claims from elsewhere even if you have done the right thing by your own state..
check it out..
Whatever the taxi driver did it makes no odds. You go to a Muslim country like Dubai or Saudi Arabia, you know what you can and can't be caught doing. They'll turn a blind eye if it's in private, but in public...
Lirun I meant what in the west we consider hardly an insult at all. Not such things as racial vilification or blackmail but a minor swearword, or raising a middle finger for example. Here the law treats such things as serious offences.
"The public may not be as much offended at the sexual act as they might be offended at the assault at the police officer and allegedly calling him a "F**kin Muslim"."
DJ: the prosecution did not charge the defendants in court with:
a) Assaulting a police officer.
b) Insulting a police officer.
Hmmm...that's the trouble sometimes with relying on Gulf News for information: they sometimes offer you more than actually transpired.
Media reports of the court proceedings also state:
a) One time one of the defendants didn't turn up (she was "sick and tired")
b) On the same occasion, the police officer (who made the arrest) also failed to turn up (the prosecution's primary "witness")
c) The police officer in question also stated he didn't see them do it himself, he was relying on other "witnesses" statements, who unfortunately it seems were a little too far away and couldn't see quite properly in the dark (and are also unavailable to testify)...
Hey, DJ, I think you should be the prosecutor...justice will be served. Just ice, I said...
Wow... fascinating. Did the cabbie also ask them to get jiggy right then and there?
i hope the cabbie provided "protection" too...lol
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