because he is a French

The media abroad had nothing to speak about this week about except the trial of the year in the Jewel of the Gulf aka Dubai. The Famous trial of the three Emirati natives who raped a 15 years old French Swiss teenager living in Dubai. The trial caused what could have turned in to a diplomatic crisis between France and UAE to the degree that President Sarkozy told Sheikh Zayid bin Sultan al-Nahyan ,the President of UAE to give utmost attention to Alexandre's alleged attack

The incident happened last 14th of July 2007 when the teenager Alexandre Robert whose father is or "Was" working as a hotel manager in Dubai was raped by three natives.Alexandre or Alex despite his terrible experience was lucky to have a mother like his , Véronique Robert , a real brave mother , who used her connections to preserve her son's rights , Robert is a veteran journalist who used to be a producer in the famous Canal Plus Television called immediately the diplomats in the French Embassy in UAE after knowing the incident from her son on the phone on the same day ,already she was in France when the incident took place. And so when the boy went to the police Station there was a french diplomat with him. For three hours he gave a detailed description of what had happened since that bloody morning when he left the beach club with a acquaintance "I.S" from his American school "17 years old" who invited to drive him home with his cousin "I.M" "18 years old" , Alex went with him and in the car he found another native "A.K" "35 years old" ,they drove Alex to the some deserted place where they raped him under the threat that they would kill him and kill his family. The Police took Alex's statements then they examined him , according to their medical investigation it was not a rape but a regular sex, the Egyptian doctor said that Alex was concealing his homosexuality "ok if he were as the doctor had said,why he had said that someone raped him ,awaking people in another continents and bringing diplomats with him !! he would go on with his habit as he wanted in darkness!!??"

Accordingly Alex would be consider then an associate in a homosexual act which is prohibited according to the Emirati laws and thus Alex would be punished just like the rest of the accused and ended in Dubai Juvenile Prison for one year, already the United Arab Emirates law does not recognize rape of males, only a crime called "forced homosexuality" and its penalty ranges between couple of months to two years only

here things got a bit dramatically !!

First the Consulate and Embassy of France began a series of investigations to prove Alex's statements and innocence's ,the consulate attorney persuaded the Dubai Police to listen Alex's again and made their investigations based upon Alex's statement,good for Alex he remembers the numbers of the car that took him and of course the name of that acquaintance from the American School , two arrests were made based upon that and added to it Alex had identified these two men in the Police Line up

Second it turned out that one of these two men the older one of them "35 years old !!" turned to be an HIV positive , yes HIV positive , Alex can be infected with HIV accordingly too , the Dubai officials denied this first but the French Consulate did not play when it comes to one of its citizens , A document released by government officials to French diplomats in August showed that one man had tested positive while in prison four years ago. Alexandre will receive word only in January whether he was infected during the attack !!

During that time Alex left Dubai immediately to escape any attempt to criminalize him till he ,his family and his country got assurances that nothing would be against him and so he returned back to Dubai last week with a diplomatic protection to testify in the Dubai court against those two men , the third one ,"I.S" from the American school will stand trial in a Juvenile court. The two men are facing now the following charges "forced homosexuality," knife-wielding and kidnapping yet this is not end. By the way the Judge in the Case of Alexandre Robert is an Egyptian, oh yes Judge Fahmi Mounir Fahmi "It seems that everything is operated by foreigners in that country even their judicial system !!!??"

The big surprise was that the 17 years old "I.S" is also a suspect in another two rape cases , the victims are two teenagers , the first one is Pakistani student, "R.A", 16 years old and the second one is Emirati S.A., 15 years old , in the same two rape cases , he was accused to rape the teenagers just like Alex with the help of others ,the interesting thing is that "S.A" is considered a suspect in "R.A" 's !! It seems that we are having a gang here in Dubai and it also seems that they are not interested in girls anymore !!!!!!!!!!

You must know that Véronique Robert made sure through her contacts in the Elysée palace to let Sarko himself know about Alex's case and the man took it seriously as I mentioned above , regardless of his foreign policies the man cares about the french people abroad . Robert is leading a crusade against Dubai , she made a website for Boycotting Dubai opening the door of a taboo calling the mothers with similar cases to come out to the light and to testify and believe it or not people with similar cases began to come to the website to share their terrible experience , of course it is a very bad image to Dubai , the Jewel ,the most progressive state in the Arab world , it is enough to know that France issued warning to the French citizens from Dubai. Already you will be surprised that the Mother is not angry from the city and its official because rape happens every where as she said to France 24 but the fact that they hided the fact that the 35 years suspect of rape was HIV positive for a whole month , in fact they denied at first. Believe it or not the NY Times article in America created a buzz in the United States , seriously you can check all the important articles in English below

The French Press and media treated the thing as if it were a deliberate act against Alex because he is a western not an Arab , of course they do not know that Alex is lucky he is not an Arab , because if he were Arab he would not have taken any right back , the only thing he could make it was to get out of this country as soon as possible . Alex and his family are very fortunate and should be proud that they are French and European because if you remember in 1990s Egyptians were shocked to know that a KG kid was rapped in his school in Saudi Arabia by his principal himself and when his dad went to report the incident the father was arrested and tortured instead !!!!!! Where was the Egyptian State and Embassy ?? do not even bother , I am sure that we got our own Egyptian Alex ,sorry Alexs and Alexias too but their parents whom I know feel the same like Véronique can't do anything . I do not think that Véronique 's position and contacts were the only reason why Alex's case was treated in that manner , let's agree on something in the west the Citizen is very important the Embassy of his country abroad is made to protect him and his rights .

The sad thing is that when I check the French blogs and news sites I found people who commented usually associated Islam with this incident , I am sorry there is nothing related to religion here , yet I guess these comments are based on the way the Dubai police handled the case at first place, if the embassy did not interfere ,Alex would either have lost his rights or stayed behind bars in Juvenile prison for one year in a way that contradicts with the definition of justice in Islam , Islam is innocent from such practices altogether , I am sorry and sad for what happened to that young boy and I wish that he had not infected with HIV from that devil seriously it is a heart breaking story

I just want to tell the westerns that it is not Alex or the French , the rest of the Arabs who are not native gulf citizens got no rights either in the Gulf states and Alex again is damn lucky that he got a President that cares for some citizen he does not know personally and belongs to a country that does not go after his mom to force her to shut up to preserve the freaking relations between the two countries ,also I want to say that I respect this mother who stood during all that time to get back her son's right

I do not know I remember the story of that Egyptian doctor and his son who is in KG every time I read this story

Sources :

1. Boycott Dubai
2. France 24 interview with Alexandre and Véronique Robert in French
3. From the Gulf News in Dubai : Cousin of a rape suspect speaks
4. From the Time Magazine :Outrage over Dubai rape case
5. From the IHT international :Dubai and Rape ,French youth tells his story
6. From the New York Time :In a rape case,a French youth takes on Dubai

Technorati tags: Alexandre Robert, France, Sarkozy, President, Dubai, News, laws, society, Social, arab, Regional, UAE, Véronique Robert, Crimes, Homosexuality, Jails, Middle east, Arabia