Torture in the UAE by a Royal - no problem

[Mattt]

What a surprise!

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/...

[FourWheelDrift]

news said:

An Emirati court on Sunday acquitted Shiekh Issa despite a video tape of the 2004 incident showing him torturing an Afghan man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails.

Turned up 2 minutes late for work did he?

[odyssey2200]

What a tolerant people they are.

[odyssey2200]

We could send him a few more idiots to practice on

[johnfm]

If you read the defence, it is claimed the sheik himself was drugged as a plot to blackmail him - in this drugged state he tortured the poor peasant.

Unbelievably, this defence worked!!!!!!

[elster]

What surprises me is why it was filmed?!

[glazbagun]

Out of curiosity- how does Al-Jazeera do on the whole journalistic integrity/neutrality front?

[FourWheelDrift]

glazbagun said:

Out of curiosity- how does Al-Jazeera do on the whole journalistic integrity/neutrality front?

Independent, so not state controlled and based in Qatar. I'd say they are probably least biased of any middle east news networks, certainly less than the BBC

[deevlash]

FourWheelDrift said:

glazbagun said:

Out of curiosity- how does Al-Jazeera do on the whole journalistic integrity/neutrality front?

Independent, so not state controlled and based in Qatar. I'd say they are probably least biased of any, certainly less than the BBC

Al-Jazeera was set up by ex BBC employees

[FourWheelDrift]

Like you say "ex", started because of Saudi government censorship.

[MX7]

"The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there. The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country" ~ Pat Moynihan

A few years ago we'd have never heard about this.

[anonymous-user]

elster said:

What surprises me is why it was filmed?!

article said:

Nabulsi said Sheikh Issa ordered the recording of the tape because he liked to watch the torture sessions later in his royal palace.

Nice.

[FourWheelDrift]

el stovey said:

article said:

Nabulsi said Sheikh Issa ordered the recording of the tape because he liked to watch the torture sessions later in his royal palace.

Nice.

And he wanted to send it in to get his 1500 Riyal prize on You've Been Framed on Saudi TV starring Sheikh Harry Al-Hill

[Mr_B]

Blimey ! All that for a bit of grain ? Imagine what he's like if you back out of a land deal or similar.

The guys lawyer reminds me of Black Adder Goes Forth where he's up for a court martial and describes his brilliant lawyer....

"I remember Mattingburg's most famous case, the case of the bloody knife.
A man was found next to a murdured body, he had the knife in his hand,
thirteen witnesses that seen him stab the victim, when the police
arrived he said, "I'm glad I killed the bd." Mattingburg not
only got him off, but he got him knighted in the New Year's Honors
list, and the relatives of the victim had to pay to have the blood
washed out of his jacket. "