The head of Dubai Police has defended his agency’s actions after the death of a British citizen in a local jail earlier this year, calling accusations of police brutality “hearsay and speculation without any grounds.”
Lee Bradley Brown, 39, died on April 12 in Bur Dubai police station, six days after his arrest on charges of assaulting a Nepalese housekeeper at the Burj Al Arab hotel.
“The minute that person was in our custody we called the British consulate to notify them that he was in our custody following a complaint against him,” Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim told Arabian Business.
“We then moved him to solitary confinement following a clash between him and other prisoners and we have surveillance camera tapes to show that.”
At the time, authorities in Dubai said that Brown had suffered injuries while resisting arrest. The post mortem report revealed the British tourist suffered irregular bruising on the left side of the forehead, as well as bruising on the nose and on the inner arm.
The cause of death was specified as vomit obscuring the respiratory tract. Blood and urine tests revealed traces of hashish in the blood of the deceased, the report said.
His death sparked claims from his family carried in the British press that he had been tortured.
Lt Gen Tamim denied those accusations, and said any evidence of wrongdoing by Dubai police officers would be investigated in a transparent manner.
“If there is any witness or proof of police brutality we will pursue the truth and deal with it in a transparent way, other than that it is hearsay and speculation without any grounds,” he said.
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