Ex football boss David Haigh speaks out about rape in Dubai jail after being outed
Former Leeds United football boss David Haigh has said he was raped in a prison in Dubai after being outed as gay.
Haigh spent 22 months in prison after being accused of falsifying invoices and secretly moving money to secret accounts.
Scotland Yard are now investigating after Haigh alleged that he was raped during his time in prison.
The 40-year-old says he was tricked into flying to Dubai to meet with the Gulf Finance House.
He says he had been trying to buy the football club, but that when he arrived he was arrested on the charges in March 2014 after the sale fell through.
He says authorities had outed him as gay during the arrest.
Haigh also says that he spent the entire 22 months in prison being repeatedly abused and tortured.
He also says he witnessed the torture of fellow inmates.
The former managing director of Leeds United spent five months in hospital after his prison release.
He had suffered PTSD, as well as knee, hand, shoulder, eye, tooth and cheek-bone damage.
The Met Police war crimes unit is dealing with the complaint.
As well as being physically abused and tortured, he said authorities outed him as gay against his will during his prison sentence.
During his time in prison, Haigh wrote letters to DIFC Courts in Dubai, and that judges had meant to look into his allegations of torture, but that no action was taken.
“One of these letters begged for the name of my partner and my sexuality not to be made public by the DIFC Court, as I feared for his and my own life.
“This request was ignored, and such information was made public, and further, made available online in a country where the penalty for being gay is death.
“The result of the information being made public, was that I was raped and sexually abused, and my partner had to flee our home in the Middle East where he is from, and claim refugee status.
“I was categorically discriminated against…on the basis that I am gay, and because my partner is Muslim”.
Recently, Brit Jamie Harron was jailed in Dubai before being released and brought home.
He had been accused of touching another man’s hip in a bar among other spurious charges.
The 27-year-old electrician from Stirling, Scotland, was sentenced to months in prison for public indecency after he touched another man in a bar, apparently to avoid spilling a drink.
The alleged incident took place at the Rock Bottom Bar on July 15.
Mr Harron has been subjected a long ordeal as he sought to regain his freedom.
He was sentenced to three months behind bars after spending thousands of pounds on legal costs and expenses.
