[youtube]54sFeGg5A2Y[/youtube]DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—A London-born businessman who bought the island of Britain on the artificial World archipelago in Dubai is serving four years in a Dubai jail over a pair of bounced security checks.
Safi Qurashi, a 41-year-old father of three, was convicted of the crime of signing a check without having sufficient funds, and withholding payment.
His family, still in Dubai where they have lived for the last six years, is appealing the conviction.
The circumstances are explained on a website the family set up, justiceformydad.com, written from the perspective of Qurashi’s 11-year-old daughter Sara.
“This is not fair since the wrong man is in jail. My dad has the contract between him and the man and also all the bank statements which include all the payments made to the man,” writes Sara on the site.
Sara also has a Facebook page, Twitter account, and a YouTube video in which she appeals to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai for justice.
“I am very upset because my dad has been sentenced for four years into jail and I don’t know why. Please can you help me get justice for my dad because I know he is innocent,” she says in the video.
Qurashi was detained in February along with his business partner Mustafa Nagri after two security checks bounced.
According to the family’s website, the checks were security checks only, and were never meant to be cashed. But when the property market in Dubai went sour, the check holder got greedy, deposited the checks then lied to police landing Qurashi in jail.
Bouncing a check is a criminal offence under UAE law.
“We’re not criminals, we are victims of the system,” he was quoted as saying by Zawya Dow Jones.
Radha Stirling, founder of the U.K.-based pressure group Detained in Dubai, said she is inundated with cases.
Security checks are issued regularly in the emirate, when signing a housing rent contract, taking out a bank loan, or signing a business deal.
Stirling said that bouncing checks should be decriminalized in Dubai. “There are too many companies and individuals in Dubai holding checks as security, thereby having the power to put you behind bars,” she said.
“It’s not acceptable that a landlord, a bank, a business partner, or other party can put you in jail, simply by presenting a check.”
On Sunday, local daily the Khaleej Times reported that bounced checks occupied 70 percent of police time in Dubai.
The situation has been exacerbated by current economic woes. The emirate has recently faced one of its biggest property downturns in history, and it is not clear what will happen to stalled projects such as the Great Britain Island on the World.
The development is a group of 300 reclaimed sand banks set in the azure waters of the Persian Gulf, arranged in the shape of every land mass on earth.
Although they were built at the height of the emirate’s boom in 2003, they have remained largely undeveloped and infrastructure has yet to be put in place for much of the development.
Qurashi, who was touted as one of the top businessman in Dubai when he purchased the Britain development for about $60 million two years ago, had planned to turn the 11 acres into a homage to his home city.
“I am proud of my British heritage and not a day goes past when I don’t miss London,” he recently told the U.K.’s ITV for the program ”Piers Morgan On Dubai.”
“It’s home at the end of the day and who doesn’t miss home?”
Safi Qurashi, a 41-year-old father of three, was convicted of the crime of signing a check without having sufficient funds, and withholding payment.
His family, still in Dubai where they have lived for the last six years, is appealing the conviction.
The circumstances are explained on a website the family set up, justiceformydad.com, written from the perspective of Qurashi’s 11-year-old daughter Sara.
“This is not fair since the wrong man is in jail. My dad has the contract between him and the man and also all the bank statements which include all the payments made to the man,” writes Sara on the site.
Sara also has a Facebook page, Twitter account, and a YouTube video in which she appeals to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai for justice.
“I am very upset because my dad has been sentenced for four years into jail and I don’t know why. Please can you help me get justice for my dad because I know he is innocent,” she says in the video.
Qurashi was detained in February along with his business partner Mustafa Nagri after two security checks bounced.
According to the family’s website, the checks were security checks only, and were never meant to be cashed. But when the property market in Dubai went sour, the check holder got greedy, deposited the checks then lied to police landing Qurashi in jail.
Bouncing a check is a criminal offence under UAE law.
“We’re not criminals, we are victims of the system,” he was quoted as saying by Zawya Dow Jones.
Radha Stirling, founder of the U.K.-based pressure group Detained in Dubai, said she is inundated with cases.
Security checks are issued regularly in the emirate, when signing a housing rent contract, taking out a bank loan, or signing a business deal.
Stirling said that bouncing checks should be decriminalized in Dubai. “There are too many companies and individuals in Dubai holding checks as security, thereby having the power to put you behind bars,” she said.
“It’s not acceptable that a landlord, a bank, a business partner, or other party can put you in jail, simply by presenting a check.”
On Sunday, local daily the Khaleej Times reported that bounced checks occupied 70 percent of police time in Dubai.
The situation has been exacerbated by current economic woes. The emirate has recently faced one of its biggest property downturns in history, and it is not clear what will happen to stalled projects such as the Great Britain Island on the World.
The development is a group of 300 reclaimed sand banks set in the azure waters of the Persian Gulf, arranged in the shape of every land mass on earth.
Although they were built at the height of the emirate’s boom in 2003, they have remained largely undeveloped and infrastructure has yet to be put in place for much of the development.
Qurashi, who was touted as one of the top businessman in Dubai when he purchased the Britain development for about $60 million two years ago, had planned to turn the 11 acres into a homage to his home city.
“I am proud of my British heritage and not a day goes past when I don’t miss London,” he recently told the U.K.’s ITV for the program ”Piers Morgan On Dubai.”
“It’s home at the end of the day and who doesn’t miss home?”
