Skip to main content

British man imprisoned in Dubai over Facebook post

Scott Richard has been detained since 28 July 

A 42-year-old man has spent the last three weeks imprisoned a police station in Dubai after posting a link on his Facebook page to a fundraising campaign run by a US charity.
Scott Richards, an economic development adviser from Adelaide who holds both British and Australian citizenship, was arrested on 28 July and charged with fundraising without permission after 22 days in custody at Al Murraqabat Police Station.
The post he shared was a link to a campaign by the Zwan Family Charity to raise funds for tarpaulins, blankets, warm clothes and sleeping bags for the inhabitants of a refugee camp in Afghanistan.
Under laws introduced in 2015 it is illegal to advertise fundraising campaigns in Dubai without written approval from the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department.
Mr Richards’ mother, Penelope Haberfield, told the BBC that his wife is under extreme stress: "She can only take the clothes to him once a week. She takes him money so that he can buy water and extra food.


"She's worried for him, she's worried for herself because if she runs out of money, will she have to leave the country? She's frightened for her children."
Radha Stirling from the group Detained in Dubai told Australian broadcaster ABC: "There are constantly expats falling foul of the law (in the United Arab Emirates) and also being victims of other people because it's so easy in the UAE for an individual to take out a police complaint against someone.
"There are so many laws, it's so different, yet so many expats, but UAE doesn't make any effort to inform expats.
"In a case like this where it's so obviously unjust we are hoping for diplomatic intervention which the Australian Government has done in the past.”
A spokeswoman for the charity said: "Zwan Family Charity has been blessed with supporters and donors all over the world and we urge each of them to please learn the charity laws of your government before you publicly support us."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Woman kills husband because he stopped licking her

38-year-old Maryland native Tasha Smith who is making headlines for killing her husband, Smith grabbed a gun and drove to her husbands girlfriends home. But why? Because the husband stopped eating her V@gina and got a new woman. Once in the apartment, Smith shot her husband Reginald. Once police arrived he was rushed to the local hospital, and died from gunshot wounds.

My Strong will for excellence and family support made me achieve Academic Excellence - Dr Olawunmi Ogunmola

 I am starting a series, and this series is me interviewing some people doing great in key areas, I decided to kick start the episode with someone I share a history with because I saw firsthand how she excelled while we were in secondary school, the reason why I am doing this is simple, to help people trace certain things backward and to help them see how some things are predictive. Wunmi and I went to the same secondary school and I can tell you without a doubt, she was very studious, she was a bookworm,, but II also know many bookworms that were not geniuses, so I decided to ask her how she did it. some people say, Hard work ,  Luck, Heredity , and Prayers, I say, let's hear from the horse's mouth. She was the best-graduating Chemical Engineering student in the year 2008/2009 from Obafemi Awolowo University with a CGPA of 4.88 Check out our Conversation Below   Me; Hi Olawunmi, long time, how have you been? Dr. Olawunmi: I am doing great, indeed, it's been a long...

Bad News Discouraged Me From Blogging

 I abandoned my blog for so many years, I started my blog in 2013 and I stopped blogging in 2018. I started calling myself a failed blogger because after blogging for so many years, I didn't get the anticipated traffic, so I abandoned it for more interesting things, well, so I thought, unknown to me, once a writer, always a writer, II have been writing on some of my social media platforms and I noticed the traffic is not exactly how I expect it to be, I started questioning myself, am I that bad? why am I not getting the level of interest that I envisaged from people, then it dawned on me. I... get it now.... I am called out to write for the purpose of uplifting, which means my stories and posts are all about good news and uplifting stories, this is not what most people like to hear, what they like is something catchy with an undertone of bad news, it's not their fault, the brain is wired to zoom in on the negatives. I woke up one morning and said to myself, if sharing good news...