Ryan Pepper, a 27-year-old British father, has been locked up in Dubai prison for seven months without explanation. He has been subjected to physical and verbal attacks and has been hospitalised after brutal beatings. His family fears that he may die in custody and are living in constant fear that he will become another British casualty of the UAE detention system.
A 27-year-old British father, Ryan Pepper , has spent seven months locked up in Dubai prison without explanation. He has been hospitalised after brutal beatings and has been subjected to physical and verbal attacks, according to Detained in Dubai.
His family fears that he may die in custody after being detained alongside 15 people on November 3. In handwritten notes smuggled from prison, Pepper described being beaten up and threatened, stating that everyone inside detention was attacked. He has warned relatives not to travel to the desert city and called the jail hell. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has been unable to ascertain the reasons for Pepper's detention, according to Detained in Dubai.
The human rights group has raised urgent concerns regarding arbitrary detention, torture allegations and the wider treatment of British nationals in UAE custody. They have also brought up Pepper's case directly with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, as well as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Detained in Dubai suspects that embassy interactions are being monitored, and are not conducted privately.
Pepper claimed that UAE police kidnapped and robbed detainees, but repeatedly suggested he could not safely explain what was happening in writing because communications were monitored. His sister Chloe has spoken to Pepper over the phone and said that he sounded terrified, and that they genuinely began fearing he was going to die in there. Family members were denied calls with Ryan until they spoke for the first time on May 13.
During that phone call, he allegedly described inhumane treatment by officials and said he was more worried than ever that he was going to be killed. According to Detained in Dubai, Pepper has been taken to hospital during his time in the UAE jail, but the authorities claimed this was due to complications from a previous surgery. The group claimed that British Embassy diplomats met Pepper on February 16, but that UAE officials were present, supervising the meeting.
It said British authorities then made an unexpected visit to the detention centre on May 25, where they had an unsupervised meeting with Pepper, during which he discussed his alleged mistreatment. Chloe said the family no longer trust official reassurances regarding his health and safety. She added that they kept being told Ryan was okay, then Ryan told them he had disclosed horrific abuse directly to officials. He said he felt unheard, and that meetings weren't private.
This completely shattered their confidence. Radha Stirling, founder of Detained in Dubai, said that the Foreign Office continues relying on reassurances obtained in environments where detainees may be terrified to speak honestly. British officials cannot meaningfully assess torture allegations if meetings are monitored by the same authorities accused of abuse. She continued that British citizens are walking blindly into a system that the UK government knows carries serious risks of arbitrary detention and abuse.
The family say they are now living in constant fear that Ryan will become another British casualty of the UAE detention system
Ryan Pepper Dubai Prison Arbitrary Detention Torture Allegations UAE Custody
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