Twelve businessmen have gone on hunger strike in a Dubai jail in protest of their continued detention for writing cheques that bounced during the global financial crisis, the Financial Times reported.
According to the newspaper, the men – who come from India, Pakistan and elsewhere in the Gulf – have written to public prosecutors in the emirate to complain that their sentences were handed down in “bad faith” and down to improper application of the law.
The newspaper said that the men, who are believed to have been incarcerated for a number of years, are due to be joined by others in the coming days.
The Financial Times said that about 500 expatriates remain in Dubai jails for crimes such as failing to honour cheques. A presidential decree last year ended the jailing of UAE citizens for such crimes, with about 1,000 subsequently being released from prisons across the Gulf state.
“The Emiratis have gone home, but we are still stuck here,” one of the inmates told the newspaper. “We just ask that we can get out and start to recover the receivables we have so we can pay back our debts.”
Last year, British property developer Safi Qurashi went on hunger strike for seven weeks in a Dubai prison after he was accused of bouncing three security cheques. He spent more than two years in jail before being cleared of all charges.
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