This incidence happened Dec. 12, 2007, Star Magazine is
bringing this Article back to remind the people what this world is turning into
and for people to be careful especially
with friends.
Dubai -- with its world-famous
luxury hotels and what will soon be the world's tallest building -- is the Arab
world's most modern oasis. But beyond the sandy beaches and tourist
attractions, the western dress and the bustling buildings, Dubai is struggling
to modernize one aspect of its conservative Muslim culture: the taboos and
treatment of sexual violence.
The story:
16-year-old French-Swiss Alexandre Robert and his mother Veronique were the
perfect example of Dubai's cosmopolitan makeup. Alex was living in Dubai when
he says he was gang raped at knife point, beginning an ordeal that has shed
light on how Dubai's justice system treats victims of violent sex crimes. Two men were sentenced in a Dubai court to 15
years each in prison in the case. Their names and the details of their
convictions were not released by the court.
"Before, I felt like it was
paradise, it was honestly paradise," Alex told ABC News last month.
"Today I feel like they lied to me, they treated me like nothing, like a
toy. And they played with my life and I don't know, they…they destroyed
me."
What happened to Alex has thrown a
worldwide spotlight on the dark side of a city where a victim can be treated as
a criminal, where homosexuality is outlawed and where AIDS is buried under a
layer of shame.
"Homosexuality is taboo, rape is taboo, and AIDS is
taboo," said Veronique Robert.
Saturday
July 14th of this year was just another summer day in paradise. Then
15-year-old Alex spent the day at the beach with his friend. When it was time
to go home, a local teenager they barely knew offered to give them a lift when
they couldn't find a cab. He called two older friends who had a car.
Alex
and his friend accepted the ride and got in the car. Alex says the man behind
the wheel drove past the turnoff to his house, beyond Dubai's landmark Mall of
the Emirates, and into a desolate stretch of desert.
"So
we keep driving and I see him taking an exit to go in the desert and I told him
'Where are you going?' And this is where I started to think and realize that
something was wrong, you know, and they told me to shut up," Alex
recalled.
First
Alex says the driver secured the child locks on the doors, trapping the boys
inside. Then they stopped along a desert road on the outskirts of the city.
"They
asked my friend to get out of the car, he said no, so they pulled him out with
violence and they started hitting, hitting him and they hit me. And after that
-- I'm sorry…" Alex said, unable to continue.
"Alex
started to scream," his friend told ABC News, adding that Alex tried to
grab his hand. The friend spoke about the attack on the condition that his name
be kept secret because he still lives in Dubai and fears retaliation.
"I
was very afraid," said the friend. "I thought they wanted to kill me,
me and Alex. So it was like the last minute of my life I was living."
Desperate
for help, Alex says he tried to call 999 -- Dubai's version of 911 -- on his
cell phone.
The
local teen who brought them to the car overheard the police respond to the
call, Alex says, and grabbed for the phone.
"I
had the phone in my hands, I was screaming and shouting for help," said
Alex. "He took my phone and he was hitting me. I started screaming and
crying."
'I'm Gonna Kill You'
"He was saying, 'I'm gonna kill you, your
mother, father. I know where you live. Don't do that anymore,'" recalled
his friend. "He said to me right in the eyes, right in the eyes that if I,
if I speak about this one day, he knows where I live, he'll go to my house,
he'll burn my house, he'll kill my parents, he'll f*** them and he'll burn
them," Alex said. "And it was hard."
"They will not touch us. Don't worry about
that, it's done," said Veronique. "They will pay for that, they will
pay for that."
As dusk settled in the desert, the friend says he
was forced to walk behind a sand dune, where he couldn't see or hear anything.
That's when Alex says the 36-year-old driver threatened his life.
"He took out a pool stick and a hunting
knife. He told me that he wanted to f*** me and I told him no way, I told him
this, you can forget about it. I won't let you touch me, I won't let you. And
after this, I had no choice."
When he finished, the teenager who had first
offered them the ride came back to the car, Alex says. "I told them,
'Listen, if you're going to kill us, just let me use my phone, just give me
back my phone and let me, let me call my family, I won't tell them where I am,
I'll talk in English, I won't tell them what's happening, but just…if you're going
to kill me, just let me call them, tell them that I love them or something,
just let me do this," said Alex." And they keep telling us to shut
up."
In the end their salvation may have turned on
something as simple as sand. Alex says the attackers' car got stuck and they
had to call a relative, who drove to the scene.
"I got my head up and I saw this plate number…I still remember it
today," said Alex. "And I think this, this plate saved my life."
'Homosexuality Is An Illegal Act'
Instead of killing them, Alex says their
attackers brought them to one of Dubai's luxurious hotels, where they were
thrown out of the car.
"They pushed us like, like we were nothing,
you know, like if we were bags," he said.
Alex says he felt dizzy and passed out. He had
survived a violent rape that could happen anywhere in the world, but the legal
nightmare ahead would turn out to be a second tragedy, he says.
After the attackers left them on the curb Alex
and his friend went to the first safe place they could think of. They took a
taxi to a local shopping mall, hid in the bathroom, and called for help.
They immediately reported the crime, going in
person to the local police station. But Alex says the police doctor who
examined him that night seemed intent on proving there was no rape, just a
consensual sexual act between three men and a 15 year-old gay boy.
"He told me, admit it, you are a homosexual
and everything," said Alex. "I got really angry, I told him, 'Listen,
I just got raped by three guys.'"
And perhaps more damaging to Alex's case, the
doctor asserts the examination "showed a history" of homosexual
activity, according to the doctor's report obtained by ABC News and translated
from the original Arabic.
"In their minds if I admit that I am a
homosexual, the crime would be over, everything would be over," Alex
believed.
Moreover, Veronique Robert says police and local
authorities failed to tell Alex that one of the men was HIV positive for weeks
after they learned of it.
Alex has so far tested negative for the AIDS
virus. However, he can't know for sure until January, since the virus needs six
months for definitive test results.
"I have to wait until January, and in
January I'll know, so I cross fingers and I hope," he said.
Veronique Robert says the Dubai authorities twice
assured there was no threat of sexually transmitted disease, even though there
was a report identifying one of the attackers as being HIV positive in
government files for years.
"I'm so furious, I cannot tell you how I'm
furious, you know, and I said why they lie, they just play with the life of
Alex," said Veronique Robert.
The Case Against Alex
Homosexuality is against the law in the UAE,
where anyone found guilty of sodomy faces years in jail.
The Dubai government denies that the doctor
accused Alex of being gay or that he was ever at risk of being charged with
homosexuality. But Robert Jongeryck, the French consul, was so worried a case
was being built against Alex as an illegal homosexual he advised the boy and
his mother to flee Dubai before he was arrested.
"I think that if we had not reacted and
asked the authorities to do something, probably Alexandre would have been
charged," said Jongeryck.
A Victorian Value System?
Arab-American psychiatrist Dr. Raymond Hamden
works in the Dubai courts and says it's important for foreigners to remember
that while everything looks modern there, it is a young, developing city.
"It's no different than were we in America
were a hundred years ago, right after or during the end of the Victorian era,"
said Hamden. "Even though we are seeing globalization, in the city that
has defined globalization, were still seeing a value system that still looks
like new Victorians."
Dr. Habib al-Mulla, an attorney and government
spokesman, defends the social conservatism that makes homosexuality a crime in
Dubai.
"Every country and every culture has…its own values, its own morals, and
the laws and legislations reflect the way every society looks at those
morals," Al-Mulla said.
"This is a conservative society. Homosexuality,
conducted homosexuality is an illegal act. And we are not ashamed of
that."
"So, when you invite people to come [to
Dubai], are you inviting everyone but homosexuals?" ABC News' Jim Avila
asked the spokesman.
"Everyone is more than welcomed to
come," said al-Mulla. "However, no one is welcome to commit any
illegal activity."
In an environment where homosexuality is a crime,
can a victim of "forcible homosexuality," as the law calls it, be
treated fairly under the law?
The trial is big news in Dubai. The two adult
defendants, both of whom faced the death penalty, have denied all charges.
Veronique Robert says she was in juvenile court -- closed to the press -- when
the local boy who first led Alex and his friend into the car pled guilty to charges
of kidnapping, threatening, and rape. Because he is a minor he does not face
execution.
"I'm sure the court will deal with this
[verdict] in a fair and reasonable manner," said government spokesman
Al-Mulla, leaving open the possibility that what happened to Alex would lead to
some reforms in the handling of rape cases.
"We will look into the system, we'll see if
there was anything deficient. And if we believe that there is any room
for…improvement in that system of course we'll do that."
Armed with the promise that he would not be
prosecuted, Alex returned to Dubai to testify against his alleged attackers, a
moment he will never forget.
"You could read it in their eyes, they were
saying like, if we go out, if we find you, my God, poor kid, run for your life,
run for your life, if we get you, you're dead," he said.
Veronique Robert relentlessly warns anyone who
will listen not to go to Dubai expecting a world-class justice system. She has
even created a Web site called www.boycottdubai.com
designed to hit the emirate where it hurts -- in the carefully cultivated image
put forth to tourists and visitors.
"A part of me is really sad," she said.
"I was loving Dubai, I was loving to come here to visit my child, [to] go
to the beach with Alex…seven years of my life…it's gone. I think I will not
come here…I will never see Dubai with the same eyes."
Information from the Associated Press was
used in this report.
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