Sentenced to 3 months in Dubai prison for swearing at passenger requesting wheelchair
A British tourist requested wheelchair assistance for his mother as she moved between terminals in Dubai. He didn’t like the answer that a wheelchair would be provided but that he should wait for the interterminal bus without a wheelchair because he saw another passenger already had one. He is trying to escalate his request for assistance, It’s getting hot. The police were called. he used foul language.
He was fined $2,723. He appealed the sentence, but the court ruled it was too lenient. Instead he is sentenced to three months in prison.
An airport official told the court: “I saw the traveler repeatedly asking airport staff about the wheelchair, and I expected that the traveler might not have understood the explanation.”
“When I tried to explain it to him, [the defendant], he insulted me using very bad words. ”
Passengers were told not to use such language, as it was prohibited at the airport, but they responded: he didn’t care.
I just went to Dubai a week ago and have been there many times. Travelers are generally okay with their actions even if they go against local customs. But when they call attention to themselves, otherwise dormant laws can be enforced. For example, Emirates does serve alcohol, but it is a crime to be intoxicated in public. Once, an American was arrested in Dubai for smoking marijuana in Las Vegas before a trip.
While some countries in the Middle East may be harshly criticized for this, it is not unique to the Gulf region. Americans break the law all the time, usually without serious consequences, but once they are the subject of an investigation, their daily violations of the law become a problem.