A young Israeli on his way to Cambodia spent nine days in wrongful detention in Dubai because of a case of mistaken identity. Only after authorities in the United Arab Emirates realized the error did they decide to release the Israeli and apologize. The man’s lawyer charged that the Foreign Ministry and Israel’s consulate in Dubai “failed miserably in handling the case.”
The Israeli departed from Ben-Gurion Airport on a connecting flight. Immediately after landing in Abu Dhabi, local police were waiting for him and transferred him to Dubai for questioning. During the interrogation, it emerged that the man’s name and date of birth were identical to those of another Israeli who had been questioned in Dubai over a debt to a car rental business.
The name is not uncommon in Israel and, from the Emirati authorities’ perspective, the similarity in name and date of birth alone was sufficient to justify the arrest. The Israeli told investigators that he had never been to Dubai and that he certainly did not owe money to anyone there. Still, it took the authorities a long time to acknowledge their mistake.
Behind the scenes, a number of officials, including the office of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, were asked by the man’s family to intervene on his behalf. He was held behind bars and only after nine days did the authorities admit the error and release him. They apologized and even purchased a new airline ticket to Cambodia so he could continue his trip. He is now considering filing a negligence lawsuit.
Attorney Mordechai Tzivin, who specializes in representing Israelis who run into trouble abroad and who accompanied the young man, said: “Based on my experience and my familiarity with the high level of fairness of the law enforcement system and respect for human rights, including in Dubai’s prisons, from the moment I learned of the arrest I was not worried. I was confident that, in the end, it would be found to be a case of mistaken identity and he would be released. Credit should be given to the local security bodies for carrying out the release immediately once the mistake was discovered, without the need to go through various legal proceedings.”
Attorney Mordechai TzivinTzivin added: “On the other hand, it again became clear that, in most cases, appeals for help to members of Knesset, ministers, community leaders and well-connected fixers within the public system, as in this case, are useless and futile, complicate the handling of the matter and cause families great distress. In this case, the Foreign Ministry and Israel’s consulate in Dubai failed miserably in their substantive and technical treatment of the Israeli.
“Only after an uproar erupted and various parties pressured the ministry did the consul agree to visit the Israeli and even then, only on the final day of his detention, contrary to ministry procedures that require visiting a detainee very shortly after learning of the arrest. The ministry did not make an appropriate effort to assist the local police by proving, on the basis of data in the Population Registry held by the ministry and not by the local authorities, that there had been a mistake in identification. In addition, as was relayed to me, she warned against publicizing the incident out of concern that it would supposedly cause damage.”