Michelle Palmer arrived in court tired, shaky but precisely on time.
Innocuously dressed in a conservative black trouser suit and modest
green-printed scarf, she sank into an empty bench on the “ladies-only” side
of Chamber No17 of Dubai's Court of First Instance. She barely glanced to
the other side of the courtroom, where half a dozen Fleet Street journalists
craned to catch her eye and record her every move.
They were there to record the verdict in a case that all summer has dominated
headlines in what has been billed as a sensational example of what happens
when Western values clash with this conservative Gulf emirate's laws. Would
the judge sentence Palmer and Vince Acors to a six-year prison term for
allegedly having drunken sex on a Dubai beach?
The truth, as it turned out, was that everybody would have to wait another
week to find out. The couple were in court simply to find out the date for
their trial. The verdict was just a rumour, like so much else surrounding
this case.
“They've all flown out here for nothing,” Palmer whispered to me under her
breath, with a slight roll of her eyes.
Before her arrest on July 5, Palmer was a successful associate manager for
ITP, a Middle Eastern publishing house. By all accounts she loved her job,
and loved her life in Dubai, with its year-round sunshine, sandy beaches and
tax-free living. Her friends describe her as warm and carefree with a sharp
wit. But on Tuesday she told another story: “I have lost everything there is
to lose,” she said, sitting in the immaculate, marble courthouse where her
fate will ultimately be decided.
Since her arrest, she says she has been treated like a pariah. She was sacked
from her job. Some of the co-workers whom she once considered friends have
spoken of her disparagingly in the press, likening her to a pathetic
incarnation of Bridget Jones.
Here in Dubai, public opinion has come down sharply against her: expatriates
and Emiratis alike believe that she should have respected local laws. But
all of that, Palmer indicated yesterday, is based on the false assumption
that she is guilty. “Ninety per cent of what has been reported is untrue,”
she told me in court yesterday.
The rumours are indeed rife: the British press have reported that Palmer threw
a Jimmy Choo shoe at the policeman who arrested her - one of the most
grievous insults you can inflict on an Arab man. Another report claimed that
she had married Acors in jail in an effort to have their sentences reduced.
Yet another said Palmer hurled an anti-Islamic slur at the policeman who
arrested her, and had ignored a warning from him to stop what she and Acors
were doing on that beach.
As the only female foreign reporter in court, I sat in front of Palmer through
yesterday's proceedings. She is forbidden from discussing any details of her
case with the press - something that clearly frustrates her. So when a
friend of hers arrived, holding her hand for moral support, a note was
passed. “Michelle wanted you to have this, but it can only be credited to a
close friend,” she said.
Written in pencil, on two pages of small notebook paper, and explicitly
sourced to a “close friend”, the letter offers a rare, first-hand glimpse of
Palmer's side of the story. The note forcefully declares her innocence, and
dismisses many of the allegations against her as wildly exaggerated.
It also reveals a woman driven to the edge of her sanity, pleading for help
and desperate to return home: “She has been in hospital from panic attacks,
on antidepressants and stayed in hiding for seven weeks. She's a paranoid,
scared wreck due to false allegations printed and she's lost the job she
loves,” the note says. Regardless of what the judge decides next week, she
fears that her fate has already been sealed: “This certainly has all been
trial by media,” the note says.
Palmer claims she has been slandered and humiliated by false press reports
detailing her alleged encounter with Acors, who also appeared in court
yesterday. Both remain free on bail, but their lives are on hold. They are
barred from leaving the country until the verdict.
Palmer has previously denied prosecutors' accusations that the couple were
having sex on the beach, saying in an earlier court appearance they were
only hugging and kissing. However, the note goes further, saying there was
never “any slur on Islam”, “any abuse/attack/hitting with shoe” nor was
there “any caution” given before her arrest.
She says there is no DNA evidence, as has been widely reported, to prove that
the couple had intercourse. The note also claims that Acors never “admitted
to sex. He didn't”. Prosecutors in Dubai are standing by their case, which
is expected to conclude after the policeman who arrested the couple gives
evidence next week.
One source familiar with the case says: “The result will have far-reaching
effects, because it has become a symbol of the basic contradiction of life
here.” Under the rule of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Dubai has
embarked on an ambitious and successful quest to become the Middle East's
centre for trade and tourism: many Westerners, including the Beckhams, have
invested in property. But some of its laws, rooted in Sharia and tribal
life, are clearly on a collision course with the values of some of the very
people it seeks to attract. Public decency laws forbid everything from
kissing in public to cross-dressing. There is zero tolerance for drugs or
pornography. Homosexuality is banned. So is sex outside marriage.
For years, expats have found ways around these laws. Unmarried couples who
live together falsify marriage certificates when needed. Those without an
alcohol licence purchase liquor through friends. But the era of authorities
turning a blind eye to these violations appears to be coming to an end.
With expats now accounting for more than 80 per cent of the population, there
is an emerging effort on the part of the ruling authorities to assert
“Emirati values”. In a recent crackdown by Dubai's decency police, hundreds
of people were arrested over the summer on charges ranging from
cross-dressing to topless sunbathing, all conducted under the motto: “Our
social values are precious...let's protect them.” Dubai's most popular
beaches, shopping malls and boozy Friday brunches - one-time havens for
expat excess - have become the target of undercover police patrols. The
country's stance on drugs has also hardened. In the past 12 months, around
65 British nationals have been arrested in the UAE for drugs offences.
One of those was Raymond Bingham, Radio One's DJ Grooverider, who was arrested
after police found marijuana in his luggage when he arrived at the airport
to play a club last November. He is serving a four-year sentence in Dubai's
central jail.
But Dubai's courts have also shown signs of flexibility, an acknowledgement
that as the number of Westerners living here grows, so does their clout.
Last year the mother of a teenage French boy who was raped in Dubai won a
hard-fought victory when two Emiratis were sentenced to 15 years in jail for
kidnapping and sexually assaulting her son, Alexandre.
Before the woman took her case public, the police accused Alexandre of past
homosexual behaviour and inventing the assault to cover it up, both criminal
offences. The tension and publicity around Alexandre's case appeared to work
in his favour, prompting the authorities to convict the rapists rather than
the victim.
But Palmer is all too aware that, in her case, there is no such sympathy. On
Tuesday, before the court adjourned I asked her if she believed she would
ultimately win freedom. She said she wanted the verdict as soon as possible:
“I honestly want this all to be over so I can just go home.” And she
acknowledged she might not be able to accomplish that alone.
The note from her friend concludes with a simple plea for the couple: “They
need help!”
High hopes: the Dubai story
by Tom Whipple
Last April a construction worker, almost certainly an expatriate, laid a
girder on the 147th floor of the Burj Dubai Tower. High above the city's
30,000 cranes - at one point a quarter of the world's supply - his view
would have stretched from an indoor ski slope in the desert to an underwater
hotel by the coast. Looking beyond, he could see across to the largest land
reclamation project in the world, a palm-shaped island stretching into the
Gulf.
Still 200 metres short of completion, his tower had just become the tallest
structure in the world. But on wages of £5 a day, he had no time to admire
the view.
If there is any doubt what Dubai - and indeed the United Arab Emirates, of
which Dubai is a constituent part - is about, then the Government website
makes it clear. Its section on the region's history makes no mention of
cultural or scientific achievements. It ignores cuisine, music and religion.
Instead, it concentrates on logistics: shipping and oil, canals and free
trade. In other words, on money. “Dubai's formula for development is
evident,” it says. “Visionary leadership, high-quality infrastructure, an
expatriate-friendly environment, zero tax on personal and corporate income
and low import duties. The problem for its rulers is that their economic
success requires the services of people who are used to not just the wealth,
but also the freedom, of the West.
The UAE was founded in 1971, when the British withdrew from the Gulf. Seven
tribal leaders in coastal towns joined together to form a loose federation,
each retaining near-absolute power over their territory. Although they are
the most liberal regime on the Arabian peninsula, their Sharia legal system
forbids sex outside marriage and still occasionally sentences women
adulterers to death by stoning. Last year at least one person was sentenced
to be flogged.
For Westerners, the UAE has resorted to untidy compromises: alcohol is largely
restricted to hotels, but in cities full of hotels that is scant impediment.
Last year the New York Times listed Dubai as a top party destination - even
reporting on plans for a branch of Hooters, the US restaurant chain based
around waitresses in tight tops. This is Disneyland Dubai: a tax-free city
with a surreally hedonistic lifestyle.
But for many expats there is yet another side to the city. The UAE is a nation
built on foreigners, and most are not Westerners. They are workers from
India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, living in great slums beneath the gleaming
towers. The money they send back home forms a significant part of the
economy of the Indian subcontinent: and without them, the world's largest
building site would stop working tomorrow.
Send one of your male reporters over to any of the hotels in Dubai - the York Hotel, Imperial Suites or many of the 5 star hotels - the place is literally crawling with prostitutes. The authorities turn a blind eye to that though. Ladies, watch your men out here. Read any of the hotel review sites
Dave, Abu Dhabi,
She was tried on the basis of evidence in Dubai, not on reports in the British press.
She's being discussed more than him here because the British press is biased.
They both ended up with the same 3 month jail sentences.
Keith S, Winnipeg, Canada
What a bunch of expat hypocrites. They might not be having sex on the beach, but they are having plenty of sex outside marriage. So, they too, are breaking the laws. When I lived there, the expats were a bunch of floozies who slept around with anybody who was buying.
John, San Francisco, USA
Anne, is having sex in a hotel room equivalent to having sex on the beach and hitting an Arab policeman with a shoe?
john, Sydney, australia
The female participant in this presumably mutual act has had shame heaped upon her from all angles, while there is a noticeable lack of comment about her male partner‘s involvement. It will be interesting to see if this disparity of attitude is reflected in their respective sentences.
Margaret, Leicester,
Sex on a Dubai beach is one of "the personal freedoms treasured by many Western expats"? What are you people smoking?
Larry Romanoff, Shanghai, China
True, local law should be respected. But in UAE's case, this is a total hypocrisy. In Dubai, It is commonplace to see a rich Arab man with a couple of slender blond girls going together to a hotel room. Or entering a bar and ordering vodka-orange. However, no trials against them are initiated.
Anne, Manchester, UK
Amazing isn't it? when other religious backgrounds move to our country, they demand equality, they demand that there religion be stamped upon the country for all to see, they want everything there way and when they dont get it it becomes a major issue, interesting how they give little back.
Joshua , Leicestershire, England
Dubai is a nightmare vision of the future where economic wealth is divided by power not by merit. People become nothing more than economic assets, so there's no need for culture or anything else that may bond people into a common interest. Get ready for lots more scandals! Can't wait!
Michael, London, UK
Am so glad the authorities are being tough and right with the law coz this will ensure that EVERY expat behaves themselves esp respect the Sharia law at all times this way the amount of adultery in this country will begin to diminish and expats will begin to respect the sanctity of life&marriage
Caroline, Bangalore, India
What I love about the English is they expect those in their country to assimilate perfectly into the so-called culture.Yet when they go to places like Spain, Portugal, Dubai they do their utmost to not only act in a like yob, but also turn parts of them into "Little Britain" in the worst way.
Matilda, Doha, Qatar
For one thing; there's really no *decency* excuse for arresting cross-dressers and ruling homosexuality illegal. What's that got to do with cracking down on promiscuity? And, cross-dressers are putting clothes on; not taking them off!
Katie, Newport, Wales
To Tom: I'd imagine most people would take the chance of (illegally) getting their version of the truth out when it becomes obvious to them they're in a kangaroo court with falsified evidence.
Another example of Dubai "justice:" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article3607846.ece
BC, London, England
Too many people are ready to voice their opinions based upon an assumption of guilt before a trial is held and before the accused are legally able to give their side of the story.
Robin Simpson, Capellen, Luxembourg
The behaving rule in any country is very simple: You must obey to the local traditions and rules. Of course, all Arabic states are very tough at any violance on the rules:no drinking, smoking,spitting,kissing, etc.I can understand Arabians - it's like offending the state symbols - flags or President
Roma, Saratov, USSR
The comments to date demonstrate that bigotry and willingness to prejudge an issue are not confined to media an public opinion in UAE. Yuck!
john, Lisbon, Portugal
I completely agree that having sex in public in an Arab country is both wrong and stupid, but the main problem here is that if Palmer is indeed innocent, it will not benefit her in any way. It's her word against a male, Muslim policeman. Since when were there fair trials for women under Sharia law?
Emily, Cambridge, UK
I think that the evidence should be heard in court, and a fair judgement made, before any sentence is passed. Everybody, including westerners appear to assume their guilt. This could be the greatest miscarriage of justice, due to trial by media, of the 21st century.
Ralph Small, Nuneaton, England
Er, excuse me, but having sex on a beach is not a "freedom" that I treasure.
Get a grip, will you?
Chris, Wokingham, England
When someone decides to work in a Muslim Country, or any other, for that matter.! THEY SHOULD accept and obey the Laws of the Land!! Should "They" break those laws.. then must take the consequences!!
The same should go for those coming into the UK!! [a] Accept , [b] follow, and [ c] obey "OUR LAWS!
Ken Foot , Hitchen, UK
The laws of the host country must be upheld and respected. End of.
Will Wesley, Lancashire, UK
Public sex is a treasured Western freedom? I agree that judgement should be withheld until all facts are known, but if even just the allegation of sex on the beach is true I don't see where that constitutes a 'gulf' in values.
James, Austin, TX
I live in Dubai and love it but you do have to respect local laws. That said, I think the sentence is excessive. This kind of behaviour gives Westerners a bad name in foreign countries but giving up six years of her life seems like too much to me.
Emily, Dubai, UAE
where ever you are in the world you must always respects and value their cultures and obide their laws weather you are in dubai, america or france otherwise it would be cast as ignorance and disrespectfull.
laura, nottinghill, uk
Try having sex drunk on a beach in the UK.
You'll end up in court here as well, with frostbite in the bargain.
Dave, Slough,
Was this neat piece written by a resident Brit journalist or by a visiting firewoman ? The reality of Dubai is that a thin veneer of glitter and tinsel is the facade one sees; the reality is that an exploited helot class from the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent does the sweaty work for the locals.
Bill Corr, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Western women need to grow up. Either act modestly (obeying local laws) and earn respect / support; or act as if you were at home and reap the consequences without crying foul. The Western interpretation of sexual freedom comes at a price.
Maureen, London,
Development of Dubai started back in the early 90's. God knows how many cheap foreign labourers have fallen from scaffolding over those years. Anyway, behaviour common on the streets of UK is an obscenity in UAE. I much prefer the civility and public decency of UAE.
Mike, London, United Kingdom
After reading the article why is everyone so set on deciding her guilt before the trial? If she is in fact not guilty of what she has been accused of, then she is the victum of a great injustice - by the media as much as the UAE legal system. Lets see the evidence.
Simon, London, UK
Have we all gone mad , she wasnt harming anyone and just having a bit of fun probably respectful of thier laws ...shame all the imigrants and ponses who come to England dont do the same .....the Britsih embassy should be helping this poor girl ...she didnt kill anyone ....grow up you lot
andy, chalfont, england
Surely if you live or work in UK ,you abide by UK law ,and if live or work in UAE you abide by UAE law, unless we think people have to follow western values where ever they live in the globe!
Plamer should have known better than to behave in this manner.
Britain deserve better reputation .
A Farhan, Purley, UK
'explicitly sourced to a “close friend”, the letter offers a rare, first-hand glimpse of Palmer's side of the story'.
You can't have it both ways. Unless the source is named and confirmed, it is anonymous gossip. If (as you suggest) the source is Palmer herself, she is breaking the law.
Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,
Perhaps thr authorities are jealous !!!!!!?????
ian payne, WALSALL,
Why has Dubai made homosexuality illegal and arrested cross-dressers/transgendered people?
Transvestism involves putting clothes on, not taking them off, and if promiscuity is the issue - it would make just as much sense to ban heterosexuality.
Btw Michelle Palmer wore trousers in court?!
Katie, Newport, Wales
We cannot let these barbarians have their way. Gradually we must undermine and change their ways into ours. We cannot draw some sort of equivalence between them and us. So this pathetic tale has underlying significance and we in the West must support these victims of intolerance.
ste, manchester,
cant think of anything more revolting a pair having sex in public.keep it private, did she find any crabs?
wendy, reading,
Why is this entire case only being reported from the woman's point of view? The man involved is barely mentioned in any of the reports, yet he is supposedly as accused, and if found guilty, will be sentenced the same as her!
Charlotte , Birmingham,
To everyone saying she should rot and be jailed? Everybody is going on about how the ideals of the Middle East should be respected, which is fair enough? Maybe then, all the Middle Easterns moaning about their life in Britain should start thinking about upholding British ideals?
Just a thought?
Neil, London, UK
Martha, in Waso (wherever THAT is) 36 might be old. It isn't in the rest of the world.
Sarah, London,
she couldn't legally have sex in public on a beach in Britain either.
Phil Constable, Darlington,
In my experience the majority of British ex-pats choosing to work abroad do so for a reason - they can't cut it in Britain and the confidence problems they left with are even worse when they come back.
Ivan de Nemethy, London,
" the personal freedoms treasured by many Western expats".
Fornicating in public is surely not one of them - or have British societal norms descended that far into the gutter?!
ChrisR, Worcester,
When in rome. We brits are NOT above the law
Mike, london, uk
Sex, drink and drugs!! Are these the values we want to show the world the Britian fights and dies for?????
Let her rot.
Jon, Portsmouth, England
We have to respect the laws of the land where we reside, the fact that this country is liberal compared to other Arab countries is no excuse for having sex on the beach!
Alfred, London, UK
Hey, Tom from Detroit:
Did you actually READ the Article?
If you believe everything you read in the papers then whoops... all the views you hold depend entirely on the editors and reporters that publish/write them.
My question's not a contradiction: Get a balanced viewpoint!!
Rob, Bromsgrove, UK
I worked and lived in dubai in the 1980's. Nowadays westerners flout their 'laws' and then complain when they are pulled up about it. The Middle East fuels the world economy...we in the west should be more aware of that.
Deportation and loss of livelihood is the cure in this case.
nick woods, norwich, UK
Let's see Palmer is 36 years of age, not a spring chicken, working and living in Dubai, a Muslim country, and she was drunk and making out with a man on their beaches at night. In many Muslim countries just seen with an unrelated man out late at night is a sin. Where did she think she was, France?
Martha Shumway, Waso,
Well she offended an officer, do you want people in Dubai to kiss her !!
1-3 months in jail is what they deserve .
Tom, Detroit , US