Marcus Fakana, the British teenager who was sentenced to one year in prison in Dubai after he had consensual sex with a 17-year-old girl, has been released and is back home with his family.
Fakana, currently 19, was vacationing with his parents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year when he and the then-17-year-old girl, who is also British, had the consensual sex, BBC reported. Though their relationship would be legal in the United Kingdom, the age of consent in UAE is 18.
Fakana was arrested and convicted in December after the girl’s mother discovered his conversations and photos with her daughter and alerted Dubai police.That was after the girl returned to the United Kingdom.
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Though she’s now over 18, Fakana, after his arrest, told the Detained in Dubai group, “We really liked each other, but she was secretive with her family because they were strict. My parents knew about our relationship but she couldn’t tell hers. She had to meet me without telling them it was to see a boy.”
The two had anticipated to resume their romance in the UK after the girl went back home. However, Fakana claimed that police arrived at his family’s hotel in Dubai, where he was arrested without being given a reason.
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Detained in Dubai said Fakana was ultimately freed after Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, granted him a royal pardon. He was reportedly “released on an Eid pardon last week.”
“He’s overwhelmed. It’s always very difficult when someone’s suddenly released after six months,” Detained in Dubai’s Radha Stirling told BBC after Fakana’s release. “For a young man – a boy, really, as I would see him… It’s just unfathomable for most people how long it would take to recover from such a situation.”
Stirling added: “He was absolutely very nervous, of course, and his whole family too. But I mean, once you’ve been told ‘buy that plane ticket’, there’s obviously a sense of relief at that point. His family is just over the moon to have him back early.”
Stirling also said Fakana shouldn’t have faced prosecution. “I think the law saying that an 18-year-old can’t engage in relations with someone who’s just a few weeks younger than him is quite strict and perhaps shouldn’t be applied to tourists,” she explained.
“Furthermore, Marcus didn’t know that she was under 18; they were in the same school year and it seems fair and reasonable that he assumed her to be 18 as well. So I think again under those circumstances he shouldn’t have been prosecuted,” Stirling added.
Stirling in a different statement, however, sent a word of caution to parents, stating that they need to be “aware that teens can be charged in the UAE for behaviour that would not be considered criminal at home, whether that’s a relationship, social media activity, or even drinking alcohol.”
