How a teenager's holiday romance led to prison time in Dubai

A London architecture apprentice developed a romantic relationship and had sexual relations with a British teenage girl he met at a hotel while vacationing in Dubai with his family in September. They planned to continue their budding romance in London.

However, after the 17-year-old girl returned to the UK, her mother discovered the relationship and reported Farkana to the Dubai police. “It’s been extremely distressing. I was taken from the hotel and not told why. I couldn’t call anyone, including my parents,” Farkana told CNN in a written statement shared by his legal advocacy team, “Detained in Dubai.”

“Everything was in Arabic, and I had no idea when I was going to get out. I had no access to a lawyer, the embassy, or my parents.” In the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is the largest city, the legal age of consent is 18, making the girl underage when she had relations with Farkana.

“I had no intention of breaking the law, and I didn’t even know she was a month away from turning 18,” said Farkana. He added that he didn’t consider the age issue because they were in the same year at school. The teenager said he was sorry and regretted breaking the law, but he is appealing to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the conservative monarchy and ruler of Dubai, to overturn the one-year prison sentence he was given last week “so I can go home and be with my family for Christmas.”

Dubai attracts Western European tourists with its warm climate and luxurious lifestyle. Last year, the city hosted a record 17.15 million international visitors, and its airport served 87 million passengers, making it the second busiest in the world. But most tourists are unaware of how different the legal system is in this autocratic state, which is based on civil and Sharia law.

Radha Stirling, CEO and founder of the UK legal advisory and human rights organization Detained in Dubai, said that Dubai promotes itself as a “modern and liberal tourist destination,” which can “confuse tourists” when they encounter little-known laws or the arbitrary application of them. Therefore, Farkana’s case is just the latest example of a foreigner getting into trouble in the “City of Gold.”

Legislation around relationships, alcohol, and online activity are the most common issues encountered by tourists. Stirling said that while drinking alcohol in licensed venues in Dubai is legal, and the party culture is “prevalent,” anyone found with alcohol in their system in public could be charged with public intoxication or unlicensed drinking. “No one would think that leaving a venue and getting into a taxi to go home is illegal – but you are breaking the law when you are outside the venue,” she added.

Another confusing area is the country’s wide-ranging cybercrime laws, which cover everything from hacking and terrorism to unfriendly comments and online activity promoting charities. Stirling said these laws apply to private and public communications, are retroactive and international – so what you shared online before traveling to the UAE could still result in prosecution after you arrive. “I would say that almost 100% of tourists to the UAE have already broken these laws if someone was looking to report them,” she said.

This year, a 39-year-old Irish man was detained for three months in Dubai for sending a “threatening emoji,” and a Northern Irish man was detained for two months for posting a negative review on Google. Dubai police and its government media office did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. While the UAE has one of the highest rates of foreign prisoners in the world – which is not surprising given that about 90% of its population are non-Emiratis – Stirling said that most people detained in the UAE do not end up being sentenced to jail.

Azzan Salahuddin, managing partner of Dubai law firm Al Adl Legal, said that strict enforcement of these laws is necessary to maintain public safety and security. “The laws are there to protect citizens, or people who are coming from abroad,” he said. He pointed to the country’s low crime rate: in Dubai, official police figures show that there were only 24.6 crimes per 100,000 people in 2023. This is significantly lower than the UK’s crime rate – measured on a different scale entirely – of 84 crimes per 1,000 people.

“Every country that I’ve been to is enforcing their laws,” said Salahuddin, adding that ignorance is not an excuse, and it’s the responsibility of every traveler to know the laws. In Farkana’s case, “it’s clear that the girl was under the legal age of consent, and her parents made a complaint,” he said. “It’s a straightforward case.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is also the MP for Farkana’s constituency of Tottenham, echoed the same sentiment: “That’s the case wherever you are in the world – and that’s why the Foreign Office makes it clear on its website the rules – you abide by the rules and laws of that country.” A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he “recognizes that this is a very distressing situation for Marcus and his family” and that the Foreign Office is “in regular contact with his family and his legal team at this difficult time.”

But other foreigners have also found the UAE’s legal system and the many caveats to the laws confusing. In July this year, Tori Toevy, a 28-year-old Irish flight attendant working for Dubai-based airline Emirates, faced six months in prison for attempted suicide and drinking alcohol. Toevy, who had been living in Dubai for a year, said her partner began physically abusing her after they moved in together. She reported the domestic violence to police, but her partner filed retaliatory charges against her, resulting in a travel ban that left her unable to work or leave the country.

“The police told me that if I dropped the case, my travel ban would be lifted,” said Toevy. But that didn’t happen. “It put me in a really bad situation. I had nowhere to go. I had to go back to him. I felt trapped, like nobody could help me,” she told CNN in a phone interview. In May this year, after attempting suicide, Toevy found herself facing charges of attempted suicide at the police station. In the UAE, suicide is illegal, although it was widely publicized in 2020 that it would no longer be considered a crime.

“I had to figure out what the charges were myself, because nobody was telling me,” she said. Finding legal representation was also difficult. “Lawyers wouldn’t even look at your case without 20,000 dirhams (about $8,500) upfront.” Toevy eventually got legal advice from Detained in Dubai, and under increasing pressure from the Irish government and media coverage of her story, her two-month travel ban was finally lifted, the charges were dropped, and she was able to return home.

Before the incident, Toevy said she had enjoyed living in Dubai and still has a love for the city and the culture she left behind. “It’s just the system and the stress it can cause. It can break you, because you can lose everything,” she said. Meanwhile, Farkana’s parents have had to return to the UK for work, while he remains alone in Dubai. “I’ve been here for four months, and it’s extremely stressful and financially draining,” he said. “I haven’t seen my family in a long time, and I’m suffering from anxiety, headaches, and insomnia.”

Stirling believes that Farkana’s case should have been heard in a misdemeanor court, and she claims that police incorrectly stated his age as 19 and his nationality as Pakistani in the report, which she said may have led to a harsher sentence. Farkana and his lawyers are now deciding whether to appeal his one-year prison sentence at Dubai Central Jail, which has a poor record of human rights abuses and torture – although there is a risk that prosecutors could seek a harsher sentence.

“I’ve heard they could give me a fine and deportation, and I’m begging them to do that,” said Farkana. “This has been a real eye-opener; it’s been the most stressful time of my life.”