A man who claims he spent last Christmas in prison in Dubai has described the horrific conditions he endured.
Luke Tully, from Hertfordshire, spent more than a year living in packed cells during the pandemic, surrounded by some of the country's most dangerous criminals.
He was arrested in February 2020 after officers misinterpreted a text message he had sent to one of his friends about a table booking, believing it was 'code' for a drug deal.
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Now, after finally returning home to the UK, the 43-year-old has spoken out about the harsh treatment and brutal reality of prison life in Dubai.
Talking about his arrest, Luke, who had lived in Dubai for over two years by the time of his arrest, told the Metro: "I’m an Arsenal fan and I was getting ready to watch the game against Newcastle that evening, it was about 7pm and I’m just finishing up when the door gets kicked in.
"There were about 12 plain clothed police. They didn’t produce a search warrant, they kicked off the door, grabbed me. I’m, like, 'What the f**k's going on?'
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"They’re shouting, 'Where’s the 10 grams of cocaine? We know you’ve bought cocaine'.
"They’ve grabbed me, put my hands behind my back, handcuffed me, undone my shirt and started punching me in the stomach. This is in front of my girlfriend, my mate.
"They’re threatening to throw me off the balcony. I said, 'I can’t help you. I can’t produce something I ain’t got'."
Police then bundled Luke into a car and picked up two of his friends en route to the station.
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After arriving at the station, Luke said he refused to sign a confession and that one cop 'beat him with a flip flop'.
"He picked up this metal thing and he’s resting it on my head," Luke recalled. "He says, 'Do you want me to crack your head open with this?'."
Speaking on Steph's Packed Lunch back in October, Luke claimed he was questioned for two days and threatened with extreme violence if they didn't comply.
He said: "They're questioning us, none of us know nothing. We denied everything because there's nothing to say other than deny.
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"They were trying to make us sign confessions in Arabic and they were threatening to torture us and electrocute us if we didn't sign."
It was only when he was put in a cell with a man he knew, called Pedro, that he realised what was going on.
Luke told the Metro: "They had caught him [two days earlier] with two grams of cocaine. They took him to his place, beat him up and his girlfriend. Said they were going to give him 25 years and demanded names.
"They went through his phone and saw messages from November time between me and him. We’re talking and he’s said he wants a table for 10 people.
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"They said, 'This is this code for drugs', and Pedro said, 'Yes'.
"He broke down to me, said he just wanted to get out of there, they said they’d let his girlfriend go. So he’s basically tried to get himself out of it by lying about somebody else and that’s why police have come to me."
After a couple of weeks, Luke was moved to al-Barsha detention centre to await his trial. And that's when Covid hit.
Recalling the horrific conditions, Luke said: "No one knew what was going one. We’re all hearing from the outside that it’s lockdown, Marshall law, Italy’s really bad, England’s really bad, there’s people dying. Then someone got corona in one of the other cells and they died. The police are not coming in or they are in these space suits.
"They closed the canteen where we ate and started just leaving food outside. There were about 50/60 people on the floor as there weren’t enough beds.
"The conditions were next level disgusting. There’s rapists, terrorists, people of all nationalities.
"The food, I wouldn’t give to my dog. If you’ve got no money, you have to rely on people’s generosity to help you out. They don’t give you toothpaste, they don’t give you a brush, they don’t give you shower gel."
The pandemic also caused Luke's case to drag out.
But even though his drug tests came back negative, he was still charged with drug use and sentenced to two years in prison.
Fortunately, another charge of money laundering, which could have seen him handed a 27-year sentence, was dropped, however.
He was then moved to the detention centre in Dubai, where he was allowed outside for just 40 minutes in the seven months he was there.
But it was when he was moved once again, this time to Abu Dhabi, that Luke's luck started to change and he saw a way out.
He said: "The prison there was a lot worse – filthy, cockroaches, it was a much older building – but the guards were friendlier.
"They said, 'We don’t care what’s going on in Dubai. Our prisons are overcrowded. As far as we’re concerned you’ve done your sentence. Do you want to go home?'
"I could have cried."
Despite having returned home and attempting to rebuild his life - opening a business in Morocco - Luke said the authorities in the UAE are still pursuing him, with his name even called out at court despite him being in the UK at the time.
LADbible has contacted the UAE government for a comment.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@lukegt22