Trapped: A Couple's Five Years of Hell in Dubai by Lee M

Author:Lee, M
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

I can’t even bring myself to comment on the last claim but the announcement was a little premature: it would be almost two months, 29 April, before the authorities told Brown he was now considered a witness, not a suspect, though they still didn’t give him his passport back. They also told him that without his cooperation the prosecutors would not have been able to prove the charges against Joyce and, by extension, me.

On 17 May, Brown met with the Dubai prosecutor again, this time on his own instigation. (I would come to learn that, at one point, Julie and my brother Wayne, desperate to try again to get bail for me, were sitting in the same prosecution waiting room as Brown. They were the only other westerners there but he didn’t even look their way.) Brown asked the prosecutor for an update on the investigation against Matt Joyce and me. Told that the prosecutor’s job was to deliver a conviction, Brown offered to assist in any way possible. He also told the prosecutor that Sunland was considering legal proceedings against Angus Reed and Anthony Brearley in Australia and wanted to check that the prosecutor’s office supported that.

Yes, he was told, they did. In fact, they recommended it be started as soon as possible, and that the prosecution would appreciate a copy of documents involved in the case. They still wouldn’t tell him when he’d get his passport back, but they hinted it wouldn’t be long.

The very next day Brown sent an email to Soheil and Sahba Abedian detailing his conversation with the prosecutor, cc-ing Ron Eames. In it, he suggested that Sunland prepare a report for the prosecutor.

With input from Brown, Eames then prepared just such a document, written in the form of a memo from Eames to Brown on DLA Phillips Fox’s letterhead, which became known as ‘the Eames memorandum’. It contained what the Australian judge described as ‘Brown’s story, as it had evolved to that point: that Joyce offered to introduce Sunland to Reed; that Joyce said Reed had the right to purchase D17; and, “Joyce advised Sunland that it had to come to an arrangement with Prudentia before Dubai Waterfront would enter into a Sales and Purchase Agreement with Sunland”.’

It also said that Joyce confirmed Prudentia ‘controlled’ plot D17. Even though it did not detail what I was supposed to have done, it said I would be liable for prosecution for deceptive or misleading conduct under the Trade Practices Act, along with Reed, Joyce and possibly Brearley. It bore Ron Eames’s name as its author, in his capacity as a lawyer. I believe the memorandum should have disclosed that Eames was also a director of Sunland, so that the Dubai authorities, the ultimate recipients of this memorandum, would be fully informed of his connection with Sunland when considering its contents.

On 31 May, Brown went to meet the Dubai prosecutor again, this time with Soheil Abedian in tow. They gave the prosecutor a copy of the memo.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.