Inside Dubai’s hellish prisons with 20 men per cell, where ‘rape is an everyday occurrence’ and prisoners are ‘tortured with electric shocks’
Dubai’s prisons are notorious for their brutal conditions. Prisoners are crammed into overcrowded cells, tortured to extract confessions, and suffer from horrific diseases.
Al-Awir Central Prison is located miles from the emirate’s famous beaches, in the middle of the desert. It houses male and female criminals in separate buildings. Murderers and terrorists are among them.
Western tourists and expats are locked up in unsanitary, cramped cells alongside dangerous criminals, in many cases without being charged or forced to confess to a crime.
According to a report earlier this year, rape is an “everyday occurrence” in the prison, with both inmates and guards carrying out violent attacks.
Prison conditions came into sharp focus after it emerged that Irish flight attendant Tori Towey had been involved in the prospect of being locked up in the facility after she was accused of drinking alcohol and trying to end her own life, as she was allegedly a victim of domestic abuse. Travel restrictions on her have since been lifted, allowing her to return home after a frantic diplomatic effort.
In this article, MailOnline investigates the harrowing stories of former prisoners, which provide insight into the appalling conditions they and other prisoners can face in Dubai.
Karl Williams claims he saw men being torn apart by inmates with knives, while others were forcibly infected with HIV during his time in Dubai’s hellish prison. Here he is pictured in his cell during the horrific ordeal
Karl Williams has written about his experiences in prison in a new autobiography called Killing Time. Here is a photo of one of the meals he was given
Tori Towey was stranded in Dubai after being accused of attempted suicide, but now travel restrictions have been lifted for her
Karl Williams, a Briton jailed for a year in 2012, said in his memoirs that he had seen men stabbed to death, had electric shocks administered to his testicles and feared that corrupt police would rape him.
He described seeing groups of guards standing by without intervening as prisoners attacked each other: ‘I saw men stabbed in the neck and others slashed in the face. Blood splattered on every surface as prisoner after prisoner was slashed.’
He also said the prison was run by Russian gangsters, who used HIV-positive prisoners to rape and infect others as punishment.
Mr Williams and his compatriots Grant Cameron and Suneet Jeerh said they were given electric shocks and had guns held to their heads while in al-Awir.
“They pulled down my pants, spread my legs and began electrocuting my testicles,” Williams wrote.
“It was incredibly painful. I was so scared. I started to believe I was going to die in that room.”
The men’s lawyers also said they were forced to sign documents in Arabic at gunpoint. Emirati police denied the allegations.
Prisoners in al-Awir prison must shave their heads at all times, from the moment they enter. They are punished if their hair grows too long. Women, on the other hand, are required to wear a head covering.
Punishments include bans on television and calling home, with phone access severely restricted regardless. Prisoners are rarely allowed visitors.
Several people sleep in one bed at the same time. Sometimes as many as twenty people share a cell that is meant for three or four people.
While the most high-profile stories of appalling conditions in recent years have come from men, there are fears the situation for women is even worse.
A police officer enters Al-Awir Central Prison in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Prisoner Dinchi Lar said that in her prison there were at least 10 people on three bunk beds, so she had to sleep on the floor.
“There’s nothing like personal space… you’re sleeping and someone’s in your face. You’re literally sleeping on top of another person,” she told ITV.
Ms Lar said she could only go outside and ‘see the sun’ for 15 minutes for three months.
British ex-convict Zara-Jayne Moisey, who was jailed after reporting her own rape, recalls the appalling conditions she endured in the squalid Al-Barsha prison.
“It was the most terrifying experience of my life, pure torture, and all because I went to the police about what happened in the hotel room,” she told The Sun.
‘I will never forget prison, it is the worst place I have ever been.
‘They kept the lights off during the day so we ate in pitch darkness. At night they turned them on so no one could sleep.’
Prisoners described both the scorching heat and the freezing cold caused by the “extreme” air conditioning. One said: “If being in prison doesn’t destroy you, the temperature in prison will.”
There is also much disease in prisons. A former British prisoner suffered from tuberculosis, which he contracted during his imprisonment.
A doctor shows a corridor in the medical center of Al-Awir prison during the Covid pandemic
Human rights activists say people with chronic health conditions were not receiving adequate medical care.
A 2019 report found that HIV patients in al-Awir were not receiving life-saving treatment.
Even during the pandemic, the cells struggled with Covid-19, making it impossible to maintain sufficient distance due to the cramped spaces.
Diseases are exacerbated by the freezing temperatures and lack of food, with photos showing the filthy food served to prisoners.
Ms Lar said prisoners in her prison were not seen by a doctor unless they were “about to die”.
Those who leave Dubai’s prisons are often left scarred by their experiences.
Mr Williams told the Press Association after his release: ‘When I got home I found it very hard to adjust. I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and crying and I didn’t know why.
‘I was having mood swings, it must have been hard for my family to be with me.’
He added: ‘I’m not sure why this happened to me. If I had known, I could have avoided the situation.’