Scotland Yard probes claims former Leeds FC managing director David Haigh was raped and tortured in Dubai prison
David Haigh, 40, was caged in a filthy, stinking Dubai prison cell for 22 months and was allegedly beaten, raped and tortured by the prison guards and cops
SCOTLAND Yard is probing claims that the ex-boss of Leeds United was beaten, raped and tortured in a Dubai jail after being outed as gay against his will.
David Haigh, 40, was caged in a filthy, stinking cell for 22 months and was allegedly subjected to abuse from the “depraved” prison guards and cops.
The former footie club managing director was arrested on fraud charges in March 2014 after flying out to the Middle East to meet with Gulf Finance House officials to discuss a deal.
He was thrown in a hellhole jail where he was allegedly raped, sexually abused and discriminated against because he is gay until he was acquitted in March 2016.
The UN has been alerted to the claims of abuse and a spokesman for the Met Police said officers from the War Crimes Unit are probing the allegations.
David has bravely spoken out about his ordeal, revealing a guard once hit him over the head with a broom handle.
“I was punched, Tasered, beaten and raped. The worst of this abuse was perpetrated by the prison guards and police,” he wrote in the .
“I lost a lot of weight through stress. Once, when I asked for some painkillers, a guard hit me over the head with a broom handle.
“You cannot imagine how that constant threat of abuse makes you feel. All around you people are being raped, and abused – you get these young kids who come in and get raped.”
He added: “The only way to describe being in prison in Dubai is hell. I was held for 22 months and I’ll never forget it – the stench, the dirt, the smell, the heat, and the lack of any information whatsoever.”
In his complaint to the Met Police, David says he suffered damage to his knee, hands, shoulder, eyes, teeth and a fractured cheek bone.
He has also struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
David said he was denied medication and only allowed to see his lawyers two minutes a week.
The ex-footie boss claims authorities outed him as being gay against his will, in a country where the penalty for being homosexual is death.
He said the contents of a letter to the Dubai DIFC Courts – in which he begged for the name of his partner and his sexuality to remain private – were made public.
Haigh said: “One of these letters begged for the name of my partner and my sexuality not to be made public by the DIFC Court, as I feared for his and my own life.
“This request was ignored, and such information was made public, and further, made available online in a country where the penalty for being gay is death.
“The result of the information being made public, was that I was raped and sexually abused, and my partner had to flee our home in the Middle East where he is from, and claim refugee status.
“I was categorically discriminated against…on the basis that I am gay, and because my partner is Muslim’.
The ex-Leeds United boss says he was originally jailed after negotiations to acquire a football club from a United Arab Emirates-based company turned sour.
He says he was forced to initiate legal action against them for breach of contract.
But after he flew to Dubai for a meeting to resolve outstanding issues, he was arrested and held on trumped-up fraud and embezzlement criminal charges.
David's claimed he was tortured in the same police station where Lee Bradley, a British holidaymaker, died in 2011 amid allegations he was beaten in custody.
Having been held since May 2014 and convicted of fraud he was due for release in November 2016, only to be re-arrested for slander over comments made on Twitter while he was in jail, which kept him behind bars for another five months.
David's case took six months and seven hearings before he was acquitted in March last year.
His lawyer, Toby Cadman, of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers, told SunOnline they have notified the Met and the UN about the allegations.
He said: “Mr Haigh was detained on spurious allegations, was tortured during that detention, and has submitted a complaint to the Metropolitan Police with a request that they investigate.
“We have also submitted complaints to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.”
He said the Met Police have the mandate to investigate given that the allegations include acts of torture.
Charges could be made against named individuals, including those who carried out the acts of torture during his detention, and those that were aware of it, but took the decision to either ignore, or give their approval.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We can confirm that in July 2017, we received an allegation of torture of a British national in Dubai, UAE between May 2014 and April 2016.
“Officers from the Met's War Crimes Unit (part of SO15) are currently scoping the allegations in line with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and SO15 guidelines.”
If charges follow, anyone identified by David as carrying out the torture could be arrested if they set foot in the UK, put on trial and jailed for life if convicted.
He spoke out after fellow Brit Jamie Harron was detained in a Dubai jail for touching a man’s hip in a bar.
